Can anyone help with some HR questions please?

[HumphreysCorner]

Hi

DH has this week taken over managing his dad's business after the last manager left. I am helping him with the staffing side and came across some variations of allocated hols. Have been searching MN, Direct Gov, Business Link and ACAS and cannot for the life of me sort the correct allowance for the 2 part timers. Also a question on lunch hours and contracts.

Bank Holidays Allowance:

Found this as well on another thread but it gives a different allowance to the way I worked it out:

"Take full time holiday per year
Add 8 statutory holidays per year
Take the total and pro rata it.

Example: Jo is full time and gets 25 days company holiday + 8 statutory days. This means that she gets 33 days total.
If she then wanted to work 3 days instead of 5 days, she would take 33 divided by 5, multiplied by 3 as her pro-rata allowance, or 19.8 days. We would round this up to 20.

If a Bank Holiday fell on a day she was at work then a day would be deducted off her 20 days entitlement. If a Bank Holiday fell on a day she was not working, she would not receive payment for this as it would be accounted for in her pro-rata total to be taken on another day."

So at DH's work a full timer has 28 days hols (5.6 x 5)- 8 for the Bank Holidays = 20 then for some reason 2 contractual days = 22. That I understand, they all have 5w and 2 days to take for hols.

Employee A works 3 days so annual hols = 16.8 (5.6 x 3) less 4.8 being the pro rata share of BH?s = 12 plus 2 contractual days = 14. She works Tues, Thurs , Fri so this year needs to only use 2 allocated days for a BH. What happens to the other 2.8? The full timers have to use the 8 days but a part timer won?t always use 4.8 BH days. If you use the above formula she ends up with 18.8 less 2 BH?s = 16.8. Why doesn?t it work the same? She has always taken the Tuesday after every BH off as she feels she is missing out. She isn?t entitled to take the Tues off is she?

Employee F works 4 days so annual hols = 22.4 (5.6 x 4) less 6.4 pro rata BH?s = 16 plus 2 contractual days. She works Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs so this year needs to use 7 BH days but only has an allowance of 6.4. How does that work? Again, using the above formula she ends up with 24.4 less 7 BH?s = 17.4 days to take.

Working through lunch:

Employee M works 8-30 until 5.30pm x 5 days with an hour unpaid for lunch. He is working his lunch and asking to be paid for it. Can we insist he has a break for lunch, does it have to be an hour?

Contracts:

Looking on the Direct Gov website it says you can revise contracts. Is altering the terms of a contract the only way we can get the staff to sign another contract. Reason for this is the previous manager wasn't very good at keeping records correct and uptodate so we can only locate the most recent employee contracts which have been scanned.

If you have got this far thank you, don't know if anyone can shed any light on it.[hopeful emoticon]

Off on the school run so back a bit later.

Sorry, full timer has 4w and 2 days.

The way I understand it, think about the full timer having 28+2 days of holiday, 8 of which are allocated to bank holidays (just as they could have holiday allocated to christmas shutdowns etc).

So a partimer would get 30parttime fraction holidays a year(eg 304/5 = 24 days). If their working days fall on a bank holiday, then a portion will be allocated to that, unless they will be working on them, or they will have them to take as they need.

Where I work, you have to take 30 minutes a day as lunch, whether you are eating at your desk or not

I would translate it into hours. When I worked p/t not one HR person seemed to understand how to work out my holiday. I ended having to translate it all into hours for them to understand. I booked time of in hours ie 4 hours for one day.

Thanks, so whereas a full timer has to use all 8 days, a part timer may gain days if they don't have to use them all. Or on the other hand may have to use some of their hols if they need to use more than their BH allowance. I just can work out how many days they have to use for their own choice of hols.

As a part timer myself, I believe a full timer does have to take a minimum 30 mins for lunch (Health & safety reasons I believe, to make sure you've had a break). However, if you're part time and working 6 hours or less per day you don't need to have a break. More than 6 hours, and you're entitled to a 20 min unpaid break.

I've arranged my hours, as I can work stright through for 6 hours and leave early. Brill!

Hi HC - the washing pile is decreasing slowly so here I am

With regards the bank holiday situation, it is exactly as you have said in that, depending on which days of the weeks the part-timer works, they may have to use some of their normal holiday entitlement to cover the bank hols (usually if they work Mondays as one of their usual working days) or have some bank hols entitlement to use when it suits them (this is generally staff who don't work Mondays as bank hols predominantly fall on a Monday). As you can see I chose not to work Mondays for a very good reason

I agree with Bruffin that translating the holiday entitlement into hours may be easier to work out and use to explain. The lady who takes off every Tuesday will have been taking more holiday than she is entitled to as she is only entitled to pro-rata of the 8 days bank holidays so I suggest you speak to her about it asap!

As for the lunch hour issue, legally, a employee has to have a 30-minute lunch if they work a full day - if they choose to sit at their desk and eat, then they cannot be paid for it otherwise they (and you) are in breach of health & safety regs.

Any more questions about this, give me a shout

Thanks Ceebee-I will definitely may well be asking you more. What a minefield it all is. Need to study interviewing techniques next........