Can Anyone in HR Assist? Holiday Entitlement for Part Time Employee

[ElatedOliveCrow]

Background for context: I have worked freelance for the last 10 years, and a few years ago I began working for a company 2 short days (10 hours a week) on a consulting basis - I would invoice at the end of each month only for the hours I had worked.

There was a mutual discussion earlier this year surrounding increasing my hours, and I suggested increasing to 2 full days (16 hours a week), but asked if I could do this on an employed basis, as I'd been struggling during the months where I took time off with the irregular income. I understood that my hourly rate would be reduced to account for extra taxes, pensions contributions and holiday entitlement the company would have to pay, which was fine.

My usual working days were Mondays and Thursdays, so I was offered two remuneration packages; one lower value that excluded 5 Mondays per year due to the office being closed on bank holidays, and another of a higher value on the basis that I changed my usual working days to not include Mondays. I asked as a compromise if I could continue working my Mondays during a normal week (as I already had child and dog care in place for those days), but during bank holidays where the office would be closed on the Monday, I would work a different day that week, and this arrangement was agreed and written in to my employment contract.

The company offers 25 days plus bank holidays to full time employees, and so it also says in my contract that I'm entitled to 10 days of annual leave, "plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part time employment)". However, there seems to be some confusion now in relation to these 5 bank holidays and how they affect the number of days leave I'm entitled to.

When calculating my entitlement, my manager is deducting 5 days from the standard bank holiday allowance, and then applying pro-rata, which is leaving me with 2/5ths of 3 days (1.2 days, rounded up to 1.5) instead of 2/5ths of 8 days. He says the bank holidays were sorted separately, and I get paid extra for them, which is why they are taken off first. I'm not sure this is correct - at the time the lower value package was presented more as a reduction for NOT working the Mondays, rather than the other way around. I asked him to clarify - if I'm working 2 days per week, every week, do I not accrue leave entitlement in line with this? I should note that there are no other part time employees at the company, so there is no policy in place surrounding this.

One final bit of info - my manager is also a friend of 20+ years, and is one of three directors at the company, so I don't believe he is trying to short change me - we get on very well both in and out of work and I feel comfortable approaching him about this - I just think he has become genuinely confused with the initial discussions around bank holiday days and I just wanted to gain some perspective from anyone who has worked in HR and has experience with part time employees and how leave entitlement should be calculated? As it stands, he thinks I should have 11.2 days per year (rounded up to 11.5) and I believe I'm entitled to 13.2 days (which would ideally be rounded up to 13.5).

If full time staff get 25 + 8 = 33 days then you are entitled to ⅖ of that as you work 2 days. ⅖ of 33 is 13.2 so his calculation is wrong

Agree with PP; however rounding up isn’t common practise so one to have a conversation about!

You arent allowed to round down so its either 0.2 of a day or it can be rounded up to 0.5 of a day

Use a calculator. Its a bizarrely complex bit of maths

Calculate holiday entitlement - GOV.UK share.google/87mRlrBhM8kcGlzwf

My team do this:

25 days leave + 8 public holidays = 33 days/year

Per day, divide by 5 = 6.6 days/year per day contracted

6.6 x 2 = 13.2. Which we round, so 13.

We would make you take your Mondays off when bank holidays are Mondays though so at least 4 days of your 13 would be for leave on actual public holidays. We wouldn’t have the flex work day thing. That means you would have only 1 work day those bank holidays weeks and 9ish days to book as holidays other times. That would vary a bit depending on what day of the week other bank holidays fall.

I think you can’t round down if the leave allocation is statutory minimum. I don’t think that applies with 25 + 8 leave allocation

This only works if you are entitled to 28 days for full time staff. OPs employer offers 33 days for full timers.

@NowStartAgainis correct on stat minimum. So my leave entitlement is something.7 because of the hours I work; I can’t take a whole day with that .7 so I take a shorter day (on paper, in reality I get a day because I consistently work well beyond my part time hours!)

I would suggest rounding to 0.5. Do down if below 0.5, up if over. Taking 0.7 of a days leave is a bit awkward. 0.5 works fine.

Simplistic way is to work out hours and go from there

For a part-time employee working 14 hours a week, the annual leave entitlement is calculated as 5.6 weeks multiplied by the hours worked per week, which equals 78.4 hours of holiday per year. This is based on the statutory minimum entitlement in the UK. edit i think this is for 28 days not 33

Or use a site like this
https://holidayhours.co.uk/

13.2 would be 2/5 of 33 days, so if you would get 33 days if full time, then your holiday should be 13.2 days.

you work 2 days a week all year round, by changing BH Mondays for a different day. You are entitled to 13.2 days.

A standard holiday contract by government rules is 28 days holiday and pro rata if not full time.

Ring ACAS for advice on this

our annual and public holidays are all calculated in hours per annum.

so if someone works 50% of the full time hours they get 50% exactly of the allocations. or whatever the percentage is.

the two figures (public holidays and annual leave) ate added together and you can then take whatever time you want whenever the office is open
eg i am forced to take christmas day off as the office is closed and it’s non negotiable but if i fancy working good friday i can as the office is open).

I think there is another way of doing it which is to add 12%, separate payslip entry, to your monthly hours. So you are paid holiday pay as you work, not when you don't.

Actually the easiest way is if you take your 5 days for an FTE and you work 2, take 40% of the full time 33 which is 13.2

(Divide 33 by 5 to get 1 day and then times by 2 for your 2 days)

I work in HR.

So am I right in saying that no matter the week you work 2 days per week, Mondays & Thursdays usually but on a day when the office is closed on a bank holiday Monday you swop your Monday to another day?

If that is the case then you are entitled to 2/5ths of a full timers entitlement which is 10 days holiday plus 3.2 days of bank holidays. You are not allowed to round down.

If full timers get ore than the statutory minimu then you have to also get more than the statutory minimum.

That's exactly how I understand it. I just can't work out if I'm missing something obvious with these 5 Mondays because I was given the option of taking them unpaid as part of my salary...

No, you’re not missing anything. Legally holiday pay has to be shown separately to your normal salary (even if it’s rolled up) & is based on the hours/days you work per week.

we even have to take regular overtime into consideration these days.

I work 3 days and get 3/5 of full time holiday entitlement and bank holidays. I don’t work Mondays but if a bank holiday falls on one of my working days I have a choice of working a different day or taking leave from the above allowance.

dont bother posting on here unless you want to mention you work in HR as the OP apparently only responds to HR professionals.

No one else asked me a question...

You have to round up unless you do holidays in hours

In my view best practice is to NOT allow PT workers to swap a bank holiday which falls on a working day for a different day as it provides this group with comparatively more flexibility than full time workers.

The basic calcs PP have posted above are correct though.

Well I only work one day a week so in a month with lots of bank holidays, if I chose Monday I’d be off for a month! But I just change my day to another dat to get the work done.
so it depends on the employer. Mine prefers me to be around if I can. (And if I do take the holiday, I just end up working another day to get work done and paid that as overtime. So end result is the same)

She works 10 hours per week.

So that's 2/7th's of what full time workers contribute (if 35 hrs is full time)

Not 2/5th's as people keep stating.

No, she was working 10 hours per week on a contract basis, but increased this to 16 hours per week employed. Presumably a standard week there is 40 hours, so 16 is 2/5.