Part time annual leave/bank holidays

[Pengling]

I'm sure this has been done to death but I'm still struggling to get my head around it. I work for a small company with no HR so would appreciate any help from any lovely HR people who happen to be around! my phone initially typed sober instead of around but that's up to you

I work 0.8 FTE, day off on Thursdays. Full time leave allowance is 34 days incl bank holidays. Can anyone tell me what my discretionary leave allowance should be this year given that Christmas falls on a Thursday?

Bonus prize of my undying gratitude for anyone that can tell me how many discretionary days given I started part way through the year - by the end of the leave year I'll have worked 30.4 weeks.

I'm deliberately not putting my calculations here yet as I don't want to bias the answers 😆

Thanks for any help

I think it is 21. Based on my day off being Monday and my higher leave allowance which I am not disclosing, calculating pro-rata.

By my calculations I’ve got the same as PP- 21.

If full time allowance is 34 days incl bank hols then your entitlement is 27.2 days total paid leave (34 x 0.8).

6 bank holidays in 2025 that I can count fall on your days I think so 27.2 - 6 is 21.2. 21 days of bookable leave is my answer!

If you’d only worked 30 weeks out of 52 in the leave year then you’d have 15 days- I think.

30 \ 52 = 0.5769, so do your 27.2 x 0.5769 gives 15.7

Just my guess!

You get 0.8 of what a full timer gets. That is 27.2 days a year - but as you are part time, you need to book off every bank holiday which falls on one of your working days.

In our company we get some extra pro rata hours leave added to compensate for the bank holidays and if a bank holiday falls on one of your days you have to book 7 hours leave. Generally, speaking the person who works Mondays gets the worse deal as they have less flexible leave to choose due to most bank holidays across the year falling on Mondays.

Use the government calculator. We do at the small company where I work.
https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/calculate-leave-entitlement

The government calculation won't work as its based on 28 days holiday per year

Thanks everyone! I got to 27.5 total days annually no problem. It's what to do with the bank holiday for Christmas Day and how that interacts with the discretionary portion of my leave that's still stumping me a bit. I'm going to put the kids to bed then go through your answers in more detail to see if I can figure it out ☺️

Your pro rata bank holidays are already included in your calculation (if 34 includes the bank holidays) so you just deduct any bank holidays you'd be due to work. As you don't work on a Thursday you don't deduct that from your allowance.

If Christmas Day is your none working day then you just have the day off as normal. I don’t work Mondays, whenever a bank holiday falls on my
day off I just have the day off as usual I don’t have to take it from my leave allowance because it’s a none working day.

you work 0.8 hours so you get 0.8 of the leave

27.2 days

the .2 is a pain but I was always able to carry over

if you will have worked 30.4 of the 52 weeks in a year you get 0.8 30/52 34 days 15.9 days

the Christmas Day is irrelevant really - you effectively get a 0.8 of a different day

legally it seems unclear but that’s how it always worked for me

@Pengling I always use hours and calendar days. You may need to adjust for the standard length of day etc.

34 days x 7.5 hours = 255 gross hours
Pro rate for part time = 255/37.5x30=204 gross hours
Pro rate for part year 204/52.2x30.4=118.80 gross hours

Deduct BH falling on working days - you haven’t stated leave year so I’ve assumed 1 Jan to 31 Dec

• NYD (Wednesday) = 7.5 (This will change each year)
• GF (Friday) = 7.5
• EM (Monday) = 7.5
• MD (Monday) = 7.5
• SBH (Monday) = 7.5
• ABH (Monday) = 7.5
• CD (Thursday) = 0.0 (This will change each year)
• BD (Friday) = 7.5 ( This will change each year)

However, I think you started on 1 June so only 3 BH (ABH, CD and BD) fall on working days. If this is correct deduct 15 hours so net leave is 118.80-15=103.8 net hours or (103.8/7.5) 13.84 days.

Having Thursday as your NWD means you have most BH deducted so less discretionary leave. This is why Monday is the best NWD.

I’ve done the full worked calculation so you can play about with it.

So, I've read through all your replies and I am going to put my workings now. I need to work out the bank holidays and personal choice days separately because although my contract states leave inclusive of bank holidays, our leave booking system works exclusive of bank hols.

Full time allowance is 34 days = 26 personal choice plus 8 BH
30.4/52 weeks is 0.585
This gives 19.9 days of full time leave allowance in the part of the year I'll work.
Apply 0.8 FTE gives 15.9 days, which will round to 16.

The leave system has allocated me 12.5 personal choice days. But in the part of the leave year I'm working at this company there are only 2 BH that fall on my working days - the August BH and Boxing Day. So my total days off comes to 14.5, not 16.

I think I'm owed 1.5 days. Am I right?

@Harassedevictee you posted while I was writing mine so I'll go through yours now.

Hmm based on @Harassedevictee maybe 14.5 days is right. The uneven distribution of bank holidays through the year isn't helping me here! My poor brain 😂

I'm sure you can change the amount of leave - we aren't 28 days at work.

@Pengling This may help

Thanks, I'll take a look and do another set of workings!

I have a similar question!

I work 42 weeks a year / 52 so pay is pro rata

We have 20 days 'bookable' leave plus 8 BH. We also have 5 shutdown days to use at Christmas that are allocated and do not come out of allowance.

My contract is term time only plus 3 weeks to be spread amongst the year.

So when it's the Christmas shut down and everyone else gets 5 days paid holiday I am not being paid. Should I be able to take these 5 days at another time?

How many holiday days should I get?

Thanks!

@oustedbymymate Without a lot more detail I would say the 5 shutdown days should be pro rated so 5/52.2x42=4.023 days.

However, because you work Term Time it is feasible these days have been included in your leave entitlement/non-working time.

I would advise you to start by asking your HR for their leave calculation separating out the shutdown days so it’s transparent when you take them.

I see what you are getting at with this and I think you are right and your employer is wrong. If you work 0.8FTE you should be entitled to 80% of the days off as someone working part-time for your employer. If one of your working days falls on a mandatory bank holiday you need to use a full day of your annual leave to take that day off. If a mandatory bank holiday falls on your non-working day you don't need to use any annual leave because you're already off. However, if the system your employer uses to calculate annual leave only deals with the days that you are allowed to choose when to take then they do need to do an adjustment to make sure you get the public holidays you are entitled to as well - you'd be effectively entitled to take 80% of that day at another time. I worked for a small organisation that did not have their own in-house HR a few years ago and had an ongoing dispute about this very issue that dragged on for nine months until I eventually left. I tried to explain it every-which-way and my line manager was a smart guy, so I don't believe that he didn't get it, but I think he was lazy and decided it was too difficult to implement. I used to lose days every year because we closed between Christmas and New Year and days of my leave entitlement was eaten up on days when they weren't paying me to work. When I started in my current role all leave allocated in the same way, prorated if necessary, and when the office is closed for a public holiday you just need to make sure you book time off if it falls on one of your working days - it is so much fairer. My HR colleagues were shocked when I told them how it had been done at my old place. I hope you have more luck getting this sorted out than I did!

Pengling also came to 15.9 which will call 16.

there are 2 bank holidays so that leaves 14 bookable days

inwonder if the leave system has pro rated your book able days and BH days separately so you end up with 12.5 days?

you should have 14 days bookable

Yes I've just worked it through again in hours thanks to @Harassedevictee and I still come out with 14 bookable days. Thanks so much to everyone. Wish me luck!

@Pengling good luck. If you can print out my photo they can’t argue the method isn’t fair.

@oustedbymymate gosh, I wouldn't know where to start with factoring in term time only and closures as well. I hope you manage to figure it out!