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Part Time Workers and Bank Holidays

Kelly

| 0 Posts

23 Feb, 2023 13:23

Hi all,

This subject seems to cause us a headache every year so I'm wondering if there is a much simpler solution.

So that part-time workers benefit in exactly the same way as everybody else from bank holidays, is there a way to work out whether they are actually due a gain or lose an extra few days on top of their usual pro-rata'd holiday entitlement depending on their working days?

Seems unfair that a part time worker that works Mondays gets all bank holiday Mondays off but a part timer not working Mondays gains no benefit.

We have a calculation but this year with the extra bank holiday we have had lots of queries.

What do you do on this subject? 

Thank you

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  • Jacqueline

    | 0 Posts

    23 Feb, 2023 14:23

    Hi Kelly

    Are you saying that your part timer workers only get days off for Bank Holidays if they happen to fall on their working days? And therefore someone who works Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday gets less overall holiday entitlement (pro rata) than a full time employee? If so, you're in a sticky situation as that is illegal.

    Ideally you should be adding the full number of bank holidays onto full time holiday entitlements and then pro rata'ing the whole lot for part time employees, so that all part time employees get exactly the same pro rata entitlement to time off as full time employees.

    Does that makes sense?

    Kind regards

    Jackie
  • Kelly

    | 0 Posts

    23 Feb, 2023 16:32

    In reply to Jacqueline:

    Hi Jackie,

    Thanks for replying.

    No, we don't do that.. phew!

    This year we're doing
    25+9=34, then 34 x 0.6 (for a 3 day week) 20.5 days to book.

    I think I've worked it out and my problem is probably more around the flexible days and the non flexible days that the PT worker would need to book. I think all PT workers would (based on the above calculation) need to book off all bank holidays that fall on their working days. Is that right?

    Thank you :)
  • Jacqueline

    | 0 Posts

    23 Feb, 2023 17:09

    In reply to Kelly:

    Yes, you're absolutely right. They would need to book any Bank Holidays that fall on their working days, so for staff who work on Mondays, there are more fixed days and less flexible days available to them. This can seem unfair, hence my suggestion on another recent post  to look at being flexible around working days in a Bank Holiday week to rebalance things.  I.e.  letting people swap their Monday working day to a Thursday on a Bank Holiday week so the Monday becomes a non working day that week and they don't have to book a day off.

  • Helen

    | 0 Posts

    24 Feb, 2023 12:53

    In reply to Jacqueline:

    Of course, full time workers also have some inflexibility as they are obliged to take all the bank holidays as they fall! Some years ago, we did away with all bank holidays except Good Friday/Easter Monday, Christmas Day/Boxing Day and 1/2 January (Scottish). We close between Christmas and New Year and that is in addition to annual leave; and we added the days we previously used to close in May and September (in lieu of August BH here) to our annual leave, giving everyone more options but still an option to take May BH as annual leave if they wish to take them.
  • Kelly

    | 0 Posts

    20 Mar, 2023 16:44

    In reply to Jacqueline:

    Hi again Jackie, in your opinion when an entitlement for someone working 3 days comes out this year at 20.4 days, do more people round up to 21 or 20.5 would you say? Thanks
  • Jacqueline

    | 0 Posts

    20 Mar, 2023 16:50

    In reply to Kelly:

    I would do whatever you normally do for rounding. I usually round to the nearest half day as everywhere I've worked allows people to take leave in half days. If you only allow people to take leave in full days, you might want to consider rounding up to the full day.
  • Kelly

    | 0 Posts

    20 Mar, 2023 16:57

    In reply to Jacqueline:

    Thank you. We're happy for half days. This is my first year of working it out and most people have completely accepted what we've said but one person is arguing that they aren't getting the full benefit of the extra bank holiday!
  • Jacqueline

    | 0 Posts

    21 Mar, 2023 08:42

    In reply to Kelly:

    I see what they mean - because you round their normal entitlement of 19.8 days up to 20 days, they perceive that they are only getting 0.5 days extra when you round up from 20.4 to 20.5, not 0.6 days. I would just explain how they benefit every year by the rounding up and see if that convinces them.