compressed hours

mattie2

I am in conversation with a friend who also works full time (37 hours) in a University (but not mine). After asking to go to compressed hours over 4 days she has been informed they can compress hours but will lose 6 days per year as annual leave - according to their HR department annual leave is calculated on the number of days they attend work, not on the hours they work per week. In my institution going to compressed hours but still working full time hours (37) means you keep full annual leave entitlement. The case of my friend seems iniquitous and I am amazed that two institutions in the same sector can differ like this. The norm in our sector as far as I can see from web site research is to keep full annual leave on compressed hours. Has anyone else experience of this please?

WestonDave

I'd have said her treatment is entirely fair - she is compressing her work into fewer days so her holiday is similarly compressed so she gets the same number of paid hours holiday as someone working a different pattern. Otherwise there would be a holiday disadvantage to working full time.

Oakdene

Whilst initially it may seem unfair I think it is right...


E.g. a person who works 5 days a week gets 25 days holiday which is 5 week.
A person who works 4 days a week gets 20 days (25/5)*4 days holidays which is still 5 weeks....

jobbingmusician

Yep. The ONLY transparent way to calculate AL, in my opinion, is by hours. As it is, she gets less days, but each day is longer. This may cause problems if there are silly rules about taking at least half a day's AL at a time (for things like emergencies and health appointments), but if she can take leave by the hour it will come out exactly the same.

mattie2

Thank you so much for the replies so far. I guess i need to tick the green 'thank you' arrow boxes. And thanks for the different perspectives which need thought. I would have said I think the exact opposite of WestonDave in terms of compressing leave but that's I think because in 5 day working leave is calculated by hours and on moving to compression it changes to 'days you enter the building'. i don't think that is transparent. (but is to tohers clearly!) Similarly with jobbingmusician I see where you are coming from in that each day of leave is longer so overall the hours of annual leave match up. And oakdene, thank you. I think the problem is in communication of the shift from purely hours to days but I appreciate the replies.

mattie2

p.s. jobbingmusician

annual leave by the hour is likely to be a non starter. It is more normal to be taken in half or whole days but I am now running some different numbers to see if I get results that fit your kind replies. I have advised friend (there really is one) to go and sit with an HR advisor and a calculator to do the maths. I do think the mixed conversation about hours and days has caused the major confusion.

ohreally

mattie2 wrote: »

I have advised friend (there really is one) to go and sit with an HR advisor and a calculator to do the maths

The HR advisor is likely to be too busy (making tea/ coffees) to be bothered with this suggestion.

If the annual leave was not adjusted to account for a compressed working week, your friend would be getting a disproportionate amount of leave.

mattie2

Thanks 'oh really'. I couldn't possibly insult an HR colleague but it seems that the posts have made sense of confusion. I still think friend ought to speak with HR for 'closure' (whether she takes the calculator or not) before her contract is changed and signed. Appreciate the reply though.

Nebulous2

mattie2 wrote: »

p.s. jobbingmusician

annual leave by the hour is likely to be a non starter. It is more normal to be taken in half or whole days but I am now running some different numbers to see if I get results that fit your kind replies. I have advised friend (there really is one) to go and sit with an HR advisor and a calculator to do the maths. I do think the mixed conversation about hours and days has caused the major confusion.

Annual leave quoted and calculated in hours is quite common, but it is also common to insist it is taken in whole days.

Savvy_Sue

And before you get all upset on your friend's behalf, if she normally works on a Monday then yes, she will have to use a day's leave for every single Monday bank holiday.

The way I always explain it, is that part-timers get exactly the same proportion of leave regardless of which days they work, but if they usually work Mondays then they get less choice about which days to book as leave because some are pre-booked for them.

KiKi

Others have expressed this already, but it's absolutely right that she has less annual leave.

On her non-compressed hours she works, say 7.5 hours a day, and is paid for that. When she takes annual leave, she will be paid for 7.5 hours.

On her compressed hours she works, say, 9.4 hours and is paid for that. When she takes annual leave she will be paid for 9.4 hours.

So her annual leave is less because she's being paid for *more* hours of *not* working each day. She gets more money each day than with her original annual leave.

If your organisation is allowing you to keep the annual leave days, then you are being massively advantaged, because you're being paid to work days that you *wouldn't* ordinarily be paid for. If I wasn't working compressed hours I'd be asking for the additional entitlement - I'm surprised no-one's picked that up already!

If you work the same hours each day, AL should be calculated by days worked. Calculating in hours also has the same effect / result.

HTH
KiKi