Shift Work Bank Holiday entitlement

surfnicky1

Hello hivemind,

I was hoping for some advice on my bank holiday entitlement with regards to a new shift pattern being introduced at my workplace.

I currently am a regular Mon-Fri position that gives me the company-wide standard 27 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays.

There is a shift pattern for some other roles currently in place. They work 4 days per week, with 27 days bookable leave. Super bank holidays (Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day) they don't work, but the other 5 bank holidays are normal working days if they fall on your rostered day in.

The above shift pattern is being scrapped and is moving to a new pattern, which I will also be joining. This will be essentially a variation of 4 on, 4 off. So the average days worked per week is 3.5.
The annual leave allowance has been adjusted to 22 bookable days. Super bank holidays are still treated as days off as above.
The issue I'm struggling with is that if your roster falls on a bank holiday, you come to work and are entitled to either double pay for that day or a day off in lieu. But if your days off fall on a bank holiday then you're just off as normal. So I'd be much better off if my schedule falls on a bank holiday as I'd get paid extra one way or another.
I've looked at the schedule for 2025, and one shift group will have 4 bank holidays rostered in, whereas the other group will only have 1. So if I get allocated to the first group, I'm essentially gaining an extra week+ of leave?

Something doesn't seem quite right but my brain hurts trying to work it out...

Mark_d

Working on a bank holiday is worth twice as much as working on a regular day, so the arrangements looks to me. If you'd prefer to work bank holidays then see if you can be allocated to the shift group working 4 bank holidays.

FlorayG

in your 9-5 job you have BH off and get paid as normal but get extra if you get called in to work - this is essentially the same arrangement

surfnicky1

"in your 9-5 job you have BH off and get paid as normal but get extra if you get called in to work - this is essentially the same arrangement"

So in my 9-5 job, if I work a bank holiday, I get a different day off. That works because bank holidays always fall on my rostered days in. If I worked Tuesday-Saturday, I'd be entitled to 4 additional days of leave to account for the fact that I am not rostered in on Mondays, which half of the bank holidays always fall on. That's legal entitlement to be fair across all employees.

My mother used to work tues-thurs and had to complain at her work to get her bank holiday entitlement. So the full time staff were entitled to 20 days leave plus bank holidays. Her pro rata was 12 days on the annual leave, but she was entitled to 3 additional days to compensate for the fact that 5 Bank hols per year always fall on her non-working days. 

surfnicky1

I think the maths I'm getting at is this:

Rostered days in across the year is 181 days.
Minus 22 days of leave is 159 days.

However, if my shift falls on 4 bank holidays, I get an additional 4 days of leave across the year.


In a Mon-Fri 9-5 job, I don't end up with additional days off work, just different days.

Undervalued

Mark_d said:

Working on a bank holiday is worth twice as much as working on a regular day, so the arrangements looks to me. If you'd prefer to work bank holidays then see if you can be allocated to the shift group working 4 bank holidays.

Says who?

Whilst some firms may have contractual policies along those lines, legally there is no entitlement to extra pay or any right to have bank holidays off. The minimum legal entitlement (for a full time employee) is to 5.6 weeks (28 days) paid holiday to be taken when the employer pleases.