Holiday entitlement

Supertrooper

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 March 2010
Messages
13,772
Visit site
Sorry another work question

Next week I’m reducing my hours to 38hrs over 4 days, I was doing 42.5hrs over four & a half days.

I get 25 days holiday plus bank holidays. Our holiday is 20 days but you get extra five once you’ve been there five years.

I’ll now be getting 20 days plus bank holidays, is that right? Seems a big drop??

Thanks in advance to anyone that understands holidays!
 

Taliesan

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 March 2014
Messages
210
Location
Hinckley
Visit site
The yearly holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks of your normal working week up to a statutory minimum of 28 days, including bank holidays for those working full time. (So 5 days a week or more.)

5.6x5 = 28

Where you work less than that the entitlement will be adjusted pro rata so that you get the equivalent portion of holiday for the days / hours you work. So if you always work 8 hours a day and you drop from a 5 day week to a 4 day week then your holiday would be as follows:

5.6x4 = 22.4 (most employers would round this up to 22.5 days)

In your case you get more than the statutory minimum with those extra 5 days. If you dropped from full time to part time then this would also be adjusted to reflect your pro rata entitlement.

You also work 4.5 days currently. Has your employer given you a pro rata share of the 33 days to reflect this?

Alternatively holiday can also be given in hours rather than days. So your hours from what you have said above are the following:

Current hours - 42.5 over 4.5 days averaging 9.4 hours day
Future hours - 38 over 4 days averaging 9.5 hours a day.

Even though you are reducing your working week by half a day your hours are going up slightly.

If your holiday entitlement is given in days then what hours you do per day, as long as you do the same hours every day, don't matter from the perspective of annual leave as you are getting a full day off. So someone who works 1 hour a day and books time off is the same as someone who works 8 - they both get a paid day off equivalent to the hours they work.

What has your work proposed that they are doing with your holiday entitlement on the new hours?
 
Last edited:

abbijay

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 April 2011
Messages
1,384
Location
Cheshire
Visit site
I am 4 days a week (currently 36 hours) and my company's policy is that I receive a pro-rata allocation of annual leave that my 5 day a week colleagues receive. So I get 80% of 25 days + 8 Bank Hols (33 * 0.8 = 26.4 rounded to 26 1/2 days. Mondays are my non-working day so I only lose Good Friday and at least one of Xmas, Boxing and New Years.)
I have a colleague who works 4 1/2 days but only works 30 hours a week. She gets full holiday entitlement of 25 days plus bank holidays but if she takes her half-day (Friday) off she uses up a full holiday day of that entitlement.
How will they be dealing with bank holidays now? Are they pro-rata'ing your entitlement or will you automatically get all of them which fall on your work days? If they are pro-rata a non-working Monday will be in your best interests, if you will have entitlement to all BH's then a Tues/Wed/Thur is your most effective non-working day.
I suppose in your case I would look to how you were previously expected to deal with taking annual leave on your half day. I would also look for any relevant HR policies or wording in your employee handbook/terms and conditions - I realise if you work for a small company a lot of this might not exist.
Are you currently negotiating with your employer or have you signed your new employment contract? You are in a position to negotiate but, depending on who is gaining most from this change in working hours, you employer may hold the cards on this one and giving you anything over 22.4 (including an allowance for BH's) will make them legally compliant.
Have a look at this calculator https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement
 

mandyroberts

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 October 2011
Messages
878
Location
South Beds
Visit site
Both replies are useful but I would ask how your holiday entitlement is calculated. When I reduced from a 4 to a 5 day week it all moved to hours which was messy as I always worked more hours than my contract to get the job done. I had an agreed non-working day which I swapped if it helped my business so on the odd occasion I wanted to swap they were happy for me to do so.
 

Leo Walker

Well-Known Member
Joined
19 July 2013
Messages
12,384
Location
Northampton
Visit site
Umm, surely if you are dropping hours your holiday will stay the same? You are working less hours but that means you are taking less holiday hours?!

I work compressed hours and thats quite complicated to work out, but I end up with the same entitlement as everyone else, just worked out in hours not days.
 

little_critter

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 June 2009
Messages
5,758
Visit site
I would have thought the holiday should be pro rated, so came up with a similar figure to Talisan.
It’s probably best to ask work how they have come to a figure of 20 and why it’s not a straight pro-rate of your existing holiday.
Someone has probably just made a mistake somewhere.
 
Top