Question about Holidays

Wondering1

Hi all
I have recently started a new job. Full timers are entitled to 25 days plus bank holidays (so 33 days).
I work 5 days in week 1 & 4 days in week 2, so a 9 day fortnight. I work 72 hours over the course of those 9 days.
The day I have off in week 2 is a Monday, so I had to speak to HR about that to make sure they didn't deduct bank holidays from my allowance if a bank holiday fell on one of my contracted days off.

So, they've sent me my holiday allowance for the whole year & I just want to check something.
On the sheet they gave me, they have broken down my allowance into hours. Here is where I have a question. They have calculated it that my working day is 7.2 hours, so for the hourly breakdown they have calculated it as 7.2 hours x 33 = 237.6 hours.
Then further along when they deduct a days holiday they take off 8 hours. 
Are they allowed to do this/is this correct? I just have no idea as when I used to process employee holidays in a previous role, it was always done in days not hours.

If it is correct then so be it. I just wanted to check here first before I go back to HR & query it if there is something wrong with the way they're doing it.

KatrinaWaves

Do you work different hours each day? Shorter on a Friday or anything like that? Or is every day the same amount of hours. How many hours? 

It will be in hours as you are part time with a different weekly pattern each week. 

Wondering1

KatrinaWaves said:

Do you work different hours each day? Shorter on a Friday or anything like that? Or is every day the same amount of hours. How many hours? 

It will be in hours as you are part time with a different weekly pattern each week. 

I work the same hours every day. Its 8 hours per day.

I'm just wondering why they calculate the holiday hours based on 7.2 hours per day, but when I take a day off they deduct 8 hours. Is that allowed?

KP20

How many hours a day do you work? Is it 8? If so, then you are entitled to 237.6 hours per year, rounded up (never down!) to 238 hours (this is 33 * 8 * 0.9 FTE). Each day you take as holiday would be deducted as 8 hours. If you took 2 weeks of holiday, that would be 9 days or 72 hours.
If you are not due to work on a bank holiday, then there should not be a deduction from your balance.

Wondering1

KP20 said:

How many hours a day do you work? Is it 8? If so, then you are entitled to 237.6 hours per year, rounded up (never down!) to 238 hours (this is 33 * 8 * 0.9 FTE). Each day you take as holiday would be deducted as 8 hours. If you took 2 weeks of holiday, that would be 9 days or 72 hours.
If you are not due to work on a bank holiday, then there should not be a deduction from your balance.

Thank you KP20, it looks like they have calculated correctly then because as a total they have 237.6 hours. I think the 7.2 hours per day average has thrown me but your calculation above has cleared it up in my mind. Thank you for calculating that for me & explaining it. It really has helped.

KatrinaWaves

I think they’ve just accidentally told you the amount when dividing by ten, not nine. Everything else looks ‘right’ 

TBagpuss

It looks as though they have worked out the 7.2 hours as being the average - i.e. the amount of hours you would be working, if you were working over 10 days every two weeks instead of 9.  i.e. 9  x 8 hours divided by  10 x 33,  so you get 237.6 hours compared to a full time worker who would get 264 hours. It's a method of calculating your entitlement, not saying you only work 7.2 a day on the days you work.  It's only relevant as a mechanism for working out your starting point. 

When you take a day off you are actually taking 8 hours off, as that is the length of your actual work day, but if you are off on a day when you wouldn't normally work then no time comes off your holiday allowance. You get to the same answer if you work it out as 33 days time 9/10, which gives 29.7 days, multiply by the 8 hour day gives you 237.6 hours.

If you actually only work 7.2 hours on the days you work then the calculation may be wrong, but assuming you work an 8 hour day, it's right. 

KP20

Wondering1 said:

KP20 said:

How many hours a day do you work? Is it 8? If so, then you are entitled to 237.6 hours per year, rounded up (never down!) to 238 hours (this is 33 * 8 * 0.9 FTE). Each day you take as holiday would be deducted as 8 hours. If you took 2 weeks of holiday, that would be 9 days or 72 hours.
If you are not due to work on a bank holiday, then there should not be a deduction from your balance.

Thank you KP20, it looks like they have calculated correctly then because as a total they have 237.6 hours. I think the 7.2 hours per day average has thrown me but your calculation above has cleared it up in my mind. Thank you for calculating that for me & explaining it. It really has helped.

You're welcome