Holiday entitlement for a part time job

[Bienchen]

I am applying for a part time job (18.5 hours) and noticed that the holiday entitlement is 13 days plus statutory bank holidays. Would that equate to 13 full days or 13 part/time (half days?) or does this depend how the 18.5 hours are spread over the week (2.5 full days vs 5 half days)?

Copied from Conditions of Service
2. Annual Leave: You will have an annual leave entitlement of 13 days paid holiday. Your annual leave will commence from the date of your appointment. The entitlement does not include statutory holidays. Bank or public holidays are New Years Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer Bank Holiday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day

9. Probation: The appointment will be subject to a minimum 6 month probationary period, at the end of which the Board will undertake a review of the post-holders performance. The probationary period may be extended at their discretion.

Item 9 also refers to a rather lengthy probationary period. I thought the normal length is 3 months?

Any advice?

[flowerybeanbag]

hiya

thanks for new thread, didn't want to clog up flybabies with holiday stuff.

Depends how the hours are spread. I would expect the 13 days are 13 of your normal days, that's how it would normally be written. Your statutory entitlement is 24 days for a 5 day week, so to work out p/t entitlement, divide 24 by 5 and multiply by however many days you normally work.

This entitlement can include bank holidays but the key is you can't be disadvantaged by being part time, so if full timers have bank holidays on top, then you should have a proportion of them too.

So cut a long story short, how many days a week do you work?

Probationary period is often 3 months, but 6 months is not that unusual. Bottom line is you don't have many rights until you've been there a year anyway, so it doesnt make a lot of difference - all it is is a set time for a review of how you are going, but if you suddenly become rubbish at, say 9 months, they could still let you go no problems, so don't worry about it.

[LIZS]

Presumably it is basing it on a 0.5 job so a full timer would get 26 days (just over 5 weeks). You therefore would get equivalent of 13 full (ie 13 x 7-ish hours , roughly 96 hours plus bank holidays) so you still get the equivalent of 5 weeks holiday. afaik ther is no standard probationary period, each company can set its own.

[gigglewitch]

Our probationary period is also 6 months and i gather it's quite a common one, if you look around. The 13 days sounds like your actual entitlement to me as most pople start on 4 or 5 weeks, often rising in increments with years' service. HTH

[blousy]

I work 2 days per week and get the full time equivalent leave (ie whatever 29 days, in my case, equates to). I also get 1/2 a day for every bank hol that falls when I'm not working, whcih I'm pretty sure is a statutory entitlement.

[Bienchen]

Flowery - I don't know yet how the 18.5 hours will be spread over the week, dito holiday entitlement for f/t staff.

I am also expected to work some evenings and weekends with time off given in lieu.

[RibenaBerry]

Bienchen,

It shouldn't matter how the hours are spread too much. 13 days would be 13 full days. However, just as an example, if you wanted to take the day off on a day when you should have just been working the morning, you only need to take a half day's holiday to have it off (if that makes sense). The afternoon you wouldn't have been there anyway, so you don't need to take any holiday.

If your hours are so irregular that you won't know from week to week (i.e. couldn't work out what you'd 'normally' work on the day you take off) it might be easier to talk to HR about converting your holiday entitlement into hours. Then you know that if, say, you work 16 hours in the week, you have used 2.5 hours of your holiday.

[flowerybeanbag]

I think it does matter how your hours are spread I'm afraid. I would never express a p/t employee's holiday entitlement as how many full time days they get off, that would be confusing and difficult to adminster/keep track of for the employee and their manager.

Imagine you work, say, 9-3 5 days a week, but your holiday is recorded in 'full' days. If you wanted to book a day off, you would have to deduct, 2/3 (or whatever fraction) of a day from your holiday entitlement. If you wanted to take a week off, even though you work 5 days a week, you couldn't book 5 days holiday, you'd have to work out how many full days that would be. Holiday for part timers can often be confusing for managers and employees alike and I think this would not help!

Assuming you work regular hours and more or less the same hours everyday, I would always express it in terms of how many days you work. For example if the basic f/t entitlement is 25 days, if you work 9-12 5 days a week, you would get 25 days. This is fair because a Monday off for you would be 3 hours off, while a MOnday off for a f/t person would be 7 hours (or whatever a full day is).

If you work p/t 3 full days a week, you would get 25/5x3 as your holiday entitlement, i.e. 15 days. This is fair because although you get less 'days off' you are getting a full day off each time, and a week off for you would be 3 days off. Thinking of it in terms of 'weeks' off sometimes helps, a week off for someone who works 5 days a week is 5 days off, a week off for someone who works 3 days a week is only 3 days off, even though they may work the same hours, so it's clearer if the holiday entitlement is recorded in these terms.

I agree with Ribena that if your hours are going to be v irregular, it should be expressed in terms of hours off. I think in your letter they probably have expressed it in terms of how many full days it would be, but it is particularly poor drafting that they have not been clear about this.

Once you are clear on how the hours would be spread, ask for your holiday entitlement to be clarified to you in terms of how many days off a year you will get, based on how many days a week you work. If it's irregular, ask for it to be calculated in hours and confirmation of how you should book it.

Imagine your poor manager if he/she tries to keep a record of your holiday if it's 2/3 day for each day off!

[RibenaBerry]

Flowery,

I agree that your method works best if you have a part time person who works full days, or a person who works every day but lower than full hours. Or even someone who works a combinatin of both (e.g. 10-4, Mon-Thurs)

My concern was that that method does not work if the hours are not spread evenly, which was the impression I got from the OP. For example, if she works a full day Monday and Thursday, plus 4.5 hours on a Wednesday, what is 'a day's' holiday? Does she have to take a day to take Wednesday, just like she would a Thursday? In that situation, you have no real choice (unless you specify holiday entitlement in hours) but to talk about a 'day' meaning a full day and pro-rating accordingly if the day taken off isn't a 'full' one.

Goodness, part timers holiday is a minefield, isn't it?

[flowerybeanbag]

no, absolutely, if the hours are irregular or not spread evenly, do it in hours

[LittleB]

I work 3 days per week, usually mon-weds but also weekends and evenings and get time of in lieu for those. My holiday is worked out in hours (it would equate to 27 days + bank holidays if I was full time - I've been there for years so I'm on maximum) It does get complicated working out the exact allowance as its variable depending on what days the bank holidays are on, but I'm guessing you only want a rough idea when you're applying. I also did 6mths probabtionary and was on temprorary contracts for over 3 years. Godd luck with your application.

[flowerybeanbag]

I think in a nutshell, BC once you have clarified how the hours will be spread, you can ask them to express it a bit better!

[ruddynorah]

mine is in hours. i work 28 hours a week. i get 5 weeks off a year. so 5x28 hours a year. i can divide that up however i like.