Irregular part-timers and bank holidays

[Crocus]

I had thought I had done this correctly but a fellow charity trustee has told me I am disadvantaging our charity staff though what appears to be happening is more to staff advantage I would say. Can anyone clarify please?

• All staff are part time.
• All are on "X hours in a week" contracts
• All choose which days they come in to work around childcare and events.
• Though there are days that are more often worked I wouldn't say there are set days
• We include BH within their leave entitlement and work this out as the 5.6 weeks equivalent
• We express the annual leave entitlement in number of hours.

Looking at timesheets it appears that on a week with bank holidays in it staff are working their full hours on the other days and not "taking" the leave- to preserve their pot.

This is what my colleague says:
As a result of the Part-time Workers Regs 2000, bank holidays are pro-rata to hours worked & included in the leave entitlement, so all bank holidays should be counted, whether they are days she would have worked or not.

This means that she will have used up leave for 4 bank holidays. Good Friday, Easter Monday & the 2 May bank holidays. Spread over 5 days, her hours equate to 4.8 hours per day, so the bank holidays have used up 19.2 hours of the 58 hours

So the member of staff in the easter week would be paid for the full week of hours, plus we would have to pay her more to cover the BH she MUST take??

Very confused now. But I can see that what the employee has been doing gives them an advantage over a full timer who would only be paid for their usual hours worked, rather than what is suggested here a full week plus pro-rata bank holidays.

Is my colleague correct, a part timer must use up a pro-rata portion of a bank holiday even if they choose to cover their full week's hours during the other days to save their leave?

Many thanks

 

[Newchodge]

If your staff work their proper hours in a week that includes a bank holiday, how can you think they have taken any holiday?

A bank holiday has NO relevance unless the organisation is closed, so employees cannot work their normal hours and have therefore taken time off. In your scenario this has not happened.

 

[Crocus]

Thanks Newchodge, so to clarify: You only deduct leave for BH if you are closed and the day is one that the staff needed to work to do their full weekly hours?

Is there somewhere I can refer to this point clearly?

My charity colleague sits on employment tribunals so tends to feel they are always correct, so need to refer to something written down to ensure they don't take this leave away from staff as they are in charge of the payroll!

 

[Caspar]

As far as I am aware, as long as they have the time off and are paid 5.6 weeks pro rata within the 12 month period you aren't doing anything wrong. In the pub and restaurant industry most staff have to work on public holidays, so bank holidays become irrelevent to them, as long as they have 5.6 weeks pro rata off work and are paid for these hours during their holiday year.

 

[Newchodge]

Thanks Newchodge, so to clarify: You only deduct leave for BH if you are closed and the day is one that the staff needed to work to do their full weekly hours?

Is there somewhere I can refer to this point clearly?

My charity colleague sits on employment tribunals so tends to feel they are always correct, so need to refer to something written down to ensure they don't take this leave away from staff as they are in charge of the payroll!

No. You need to ignore bank holidays, whether you are open or closed.

Staff work 30 hours per week. They are entitled to 5.6 weeks x 30 hours in paid leave. That is 168 hours paid leave per year.

If there is a bank holiday in a week and they only work 25 hours that week, they have had 5 hours paid leave. If there is a bank holiday and they still work 30 hours they have had no [aid leave.

Have a look at the ACAS guidance on holiday entitlement.

You don't need to worry about what full timers would get, as you don't employ 'full timers'.

 

[Newchodge]

Thanks Newchodge, so to clarify: You only deduct leave for BH if you are closed and the day is one that the staff needed to work to do their full weekly hours?

Is there somewhere I can refer to this point clearly?

My charity colleague sits on employment tribunals so tends to feel they are always correct, so need to refer to something written down to ensure they don't take this leave away from staff as they are in charge of the payroll!

No. You need to ignore bank holidays, whether you are open or closed.

Staff work 30 hours per week. They are entitled to 5.6 weeks x 30 hours in paid leave. That is 168 hours paid leave per year.

If there is a bank holiday in a week and they only work 25 hours that week, they have had 5 hours paid leave. If there is a bank holiday and they still work 30 hours they have had no paid leave.

Have a look at the ACAS guidance on holiday entitlement.

You don't need to worry about what full timers would get, as you don't employ 'full timers'.