How many bank holidays am i entitled to - full time shift worker.

[estya]

My contract says I am entitled to "5 weeks holiday and it addition you are entitled to statutory proclaimed public holidays".
I work full time shifts (12 hour shifts, average 3.5 days/week) and it is luck of the draw whether we are on or off on a bank holiday.

a)I believe that in addition to 5 weeks holiday, we should be entitled to some extra days for the bank holidays that we work - would you agree?.

b)But how many days worth of bank holidays should we take? I understand how to work it out for part time workers, but that doesn't apply to us. Should we compare ourselves to those at our site who work monday to friday (ie 5 days out of 7) and take bank holidays - they take 8 days per year. We work 3.5 days out of 7 so should we have 6 (rounded up from 5.6 if i have worked it out correctly)?

c) someone I have spoken to said that, because of the way our contracts are worded, we should have the new 5.6 weeks per year, plus public holidays. Is this correct?

Hope for some help - I have looked through other threads and a couple of people offer very good advice - you should be charging!!!
Thanks x x x x

So you work 42 hours per week? not sure is I read that correctly, but sounds like you do 3.5 X 12 hour shifts (ie three shifts of 12 hours, one of 6)?

Not sure what the definition of 'full-time' actually is, but I think anything from 35-45 would probably fit most people's definition.

so 33 days per year (including bank holidays) sounds right. Your contract implies 5 weeks plus 8 days bank holidays, but nowehere do I see an indication that it should be 36 days so not sure how that has been deduced from the wording.

next issue is how many days you actually should get, given that you do not work a 5/7 schedule? I have had employees doing long shifts such as this, so have always converted everthing to hours: ie if you are doing 42 hours per week that equals 8.4 hours per standard working day (42/5). Then you take 8.4 hours * 33 days = 277.2 hours which equals your holiday entitlement. So if you work 12 hour shifts that would mean you were entitled to 23 'shifts' off (277/12) - which makes perfect sense because 23 shifts divided by 3.5 equals the 6.6 weeks you would expect (5 weeks plus 8 days)

final point - no, you are not entitled to 'extra' time off simply because the shift you worked fell on a bank holiday (unless it is expressly given in your employment contract) - things like double time or whatever do not automatically apply.

Yup squiffy, we average 42 hours a week but its not an even 3.5/week. Some weeks we are rota-ed on for 5 or 6, sometimes only 1 or 2, always 12 hour shifts but its 3 and a half days as an average
I'm not sure where the 36 days comes from. I'd love that many but don't think i am implying i am entitled to that many - I believe 23, the same as you. We currently get 18.

With respect to the last point, I have heard that bank holidays are only included in the minimum entitlement (5.6 weeks) if your contract says so. Otherwise they are on top of the minimum entitlement. I think this may be taking it a bit too far, though.

The 5.6 weeks per year minimum can include bank holidays, so you already get more than the statutory minimum.

I think in your case you would have to work out your leave entitlement in hours rather than days, and include the bank holidays.

Not sure how you work it out legally, but when I did shift work which covered a bank holiday you were entitled to 'time off in lieu'
e.g. you worked Monday, which was bank holiday, so now you can take one extra days holiday whenever - so long as you book it off in advance and in the normal way.

If you weren't scheduled to work a bank holiday it was tough. However, people are usually willing to swap a bank holiday shift, so if you were clever you could get on them and earn extra time off