Annual leave for part-time staff - have I got it right?

poorlittlefish

DELETED.

(I've spoken with ACAS who have confirmed the leave should be based on average hours.)

Takeaway_Addict

As long as they have no more or no less hours on holiday as a full timer pro rata'd then there is nothing wrong and the part timers are being savvy about when taking them.....and why not?

You could always refuse and make them spread it out but there is only a point in doing this if it benefits the company. For example it would be perfectly fine to restrict someone that works alternate weekends from using their holiday days to book alot of weekends off if these days were the busiest during the week.

redcard

I don't really understand the logic. The P/T staff are working less hours, so they're getting paid less.

They're basically claiming less holiday hours, but claiming them more often.

Don't really see what the problem is.

liney

poorlittlefish wrote: »

I have taken over a team who work shifts. Their contract states what their weekly number of hours should be, but the shift pattern means that some weeks they work fewer hours than contracted. Due to the odd number of hours they're contracted to work (it doesn't correspond to days), their annual leave is in hours but is the equivalent to the number of days that full-time staff get.

What I've discovered is that staff deliberately book leave on the weeks when they work fewer hours. This means that fewer hours are deducted, allowing them to have far more days off than full-time staff and I don't think this is right because full and part-time staff are supposed to be treated equally.

From what I've been reading on gov.uk, lawdonut.co.uk etc, those who work shifts with uneven hours should have their holidays based on the average hours they worked over the previous 12 weeks, which would make sense and be a lot fairer. As the shift pattern doesn't change it would be very easy to calculate the number of hours that should be deducted when booking leave.

However, staff are saying that they've booked their leave in their current way for years and that basing it on their contracted or average hours would "diddle" them. I don't want anyone diddled, but my impression is that they've been lucky that their previous manager didn't notice they were taking more leave than they should and have been at an unfair advantage over other staff.

Can someone please confirm whether I've understood the information on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/holiday-pay-the-basics) correctly? Thanks.

By the token, I assume that some weeks they will also work more than the contractural number of hours. ie if they work say 4 on, 4 off they will work 3 days on one week and 4 days the next. I am suprised that the contract does not just say 'annualised hours of X' to be honest. They clearly would not be working 42 hours per week, ever.

What you are experiencing is staff knowing when best to use their hours: just like 9 to 5 staff booking off 4 days leave when there is a bank holiday. They are not having 'more days off' - they are only being paid for the hours they book, and if that means they only need to book off 36 hours this week for a week away from work, instead of 48 hours next week, they are still receiving the same £cash amount of holiday pay at the end of the year.

This kind of thing balances out the inconvenience of working such shifts, and most companies see it as a perk. You have said that the shift pattern never changes, so surely they are entitled to book their set amount of hours whenever they like, as long as the required amount of staff are on shift, in which case you refuse the leave request. What you shouldn't be doing is comparing them to Jim in accounts who works 9-5 Monday to Friday with an hour for lunch, because presumably you do not compare him to them when he is not working evenings and weekends and perceive unfairness. It just that he works a different shift pattern.

poorlittlefish

liney wrote: »

By the token, I assume that some weeks they will also work more than the contractural number of hours. ie if they work say 4 on, 4 off they will work 3 days on one week and 4 days the next. I am suprised that the contract does not just say 'annualised hours of X' to be honest. They clearly would not be working 42 hours per week, ever.

They work 5 days per week and get Bank Holidays off as full-time staff do. Their hours per week equates to 0.64 full-time equivalent. All staff have five weeks' leave, expressed either as days or hours.

Horseunderwater

So you're saying that they get 33 days leave with 8 bank/public holidays then. Assuming 25 days proper AL/year then it works out at 2.08 days due per month worked. That's the accrual rate. So if a part timer has been there 3 months then they would be entitled to a max of 6.25 days at that point paid leave. If they took more, then they need to work more time at the company to accrue further AL or take it unpaid. The employer is within rights to deduct any excess leave taken when someone leaves. Always did it that way when I did wages & my employer still does.

theoretica

So, at the moment they are claiming eg lots of 3 hour days as leave and you think they should have to claim fewer 4.5 hour days as leave. From my reading you are right that this could be imposed, but is it worth the disgruntled staff you will have? You may have the union claiming custom and practice against you too.

Takeaway_Addict

OP I wouldn't trust ACAS, the employer sounds like they are doing it right. They are unable to determine how many hours one will do at any one point but they know over a year they will do X and then pro rataring it down into hours holiday.

Takeaway_Addict

theoretica wrote: »

So, at the moment they are claiming eg lots of 3 hour days as leave and you think they should have to claim fewer 4.5 hour days as leave. From my reading you are right that this could be imposed, but is it worth the disgruntled staff you will have? You may have the union claiming custom and practice against you too.

custom and practise wouldn't stand on this

getmore4less

So what if they get more days, it is the hours they get off/paid for that matters.

If you change the holiday hours taken off the allowance to more than they get paid(had they worked) you will need to pay them more.

getmore4less

https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/holiday-pay-the-basics

I see where you have gone wrong.

The averaging is to work out the "weeks" pay not the number of hours.

if the worker would have worked X hours for the week off but you allocate more hours from the holiday pool you will need to pay them more that week.