We have an employee who works 3 full days and 1 half day per week. Using the online holiday entitlement calculator it says they are entitled to 137.2 hours which works out at 19 full days and almost a half day. Our business is closed 17days per year and employees are required to use annual leave to cover these day, due to this our employee only has 2½ days annual leave to use as they wish. To me this doesn't seem overly fair, should there not be the option to take business closure as unpaid leave. Would like to hear some opinions on this as unsure how to best manage this as the employee is asking questions
I can see why the employee is questioning this. If most of their annual leave is automatically used to cover business closures, they have very little flexibility left to take time off when they actually want it. I’d check the employment contract and local holiday rules to see whether unpaid leave during closures is an option. It may also be worth reviewing whether the closure policy is fair for part-time staff compared with full-time employees.
