Bank Holiday pay for part-time part-year worker

libertycuk

I recently started work at a University, where my contract states I work 36 weeks of the year and am not entitled to take holidays during those 36 weeks, I work 10-3pm Mon - Fri. I work from the end Sept. to beginning of June.That was fine and I signed the contract. Since starting work I have been told I will have to work an extra 12 days to pay back for time off on Bank Holidays and University closed days. I have spoken to another employee who also works the same weeks as me. She does not have to work the extra days. She has been there a number of years and works 9-5pm Mon - Fri. My question is, can the University do this to me and not to other staff? Plus there was no mention of working extra weeks because of the closed days and bank holidays in my contract. I know this is complicated but would really appreciate any advice.

Notmyrealname

There is no right for anyone to have the same terms as another employee as long as it isn't done on the grounds of discrimination.

If you are contracted to work 180 days then you need to do 36 weeks plus 12 days if there were 12 closed days during that period.

Uncertain

The last part time university contract I saw clearly stated that the annual leave included bank holidays if they fell on days normally worked. This meant that if you happened to work only on Mondays you got a considerable advantage! However, as long as nobody ended up with less than the statutory minimum holiday (28 days pro rata) this was perfectly legal.

However, if was further complicated by the fact that some jobs (not all) would not allow holiday during term time and this lead to different departments having different customs (not rules as such) where some staff did significantly better than others. Frankly it was a mess where the only consistency was that nobody ended up with less than the legal minimum. This was five years ago so maybe they have got their act together but I wouldn't put much money on it!