Am I receiving enough holiday?

lovetheworld1

Good morning, hopeful someone may be able to assist in some way. 

I’m keen to understand more regarding my work place and the holiday permitted to take by my employer. I’m somewhat knowledgable on the area but clearly cannot answer my query fully myself!

I work a Full time six day working week role at a horse stud farm where we have a busy varied hours period Jan to June, and a quieter second half of the year with more consistent and less hours. 

We are contracted to have “four weeks holiday a year”. 

We have to take our holiday only in the window of mid June to mid October AND it has to be taken in one week segments - we can’t take one day here or there frustratingly. 

Through the year we work six week cycles - first four weeks we get a day off (different day each week) in the week, the final two weeks we work all days bar the weekend in the middle. We also work 5-8pm shifts twice a week. 

June to December similar cycle but with shorter weekend days (1.5hr day) and no 5-8pm shifts. 

Firstly, I am unsure if this constitutes an irregular hours worker but when I consider we work 40.8 hour weeks Jan to June and 35.42 hour weeks July to December and a different day off each week, it does make me wonder but the contract states no hours of work - only states “as per stud routine”. 

Because of when and how we are instructed to take our holiday (mid June to Mid Oct - quiet time at the stud) we only actually ‘miss’ 145 hours of working time over the four weeks we take (start on a Saturday and return the following Monday missing four weekend days and four week days of work - day off not counted as holiday). 

Clearly when you take the 12.07% method that would be applied to an irregular hours worker we should be receiving 207 hours of holiday when taking the 46.4 weeks 1721 hrs worked.

Obviously, because we have four weekend days involved in each week of holiday taken that accounts for the short fall - each weekend day is 1.5hrs of work in the quiet season. 

All the other studs locally that I have investigated allow employees to either take their holiday as and when they wish; single days etc, or at least 75% of their holiday in this fashion. They all also hit 210-225hours of ‘missed working hours’ at work when they take their holiday permitted holiday. 

So three questions essentially:

A) The contract states four weeks of holiday. Are we receiving this correctly regardless of the hours missed at work?

Are we irregular hour workers?

C) Is my employer short changing us but legally?

Many thanks

FlorayG

Statutory holiday is 28 days a year including Bank Holidays, so if you work the BH then you are being short changed whatever your hours because even on a six day week thats only 24 days

lovetheworld1

FlorayG said:

Statutory holiday is 28 days a year including Bank Holidays, so if you work the BH then you are being short changed whatever your hours because even on a six day week thats only 24 days

Thanks Floray. Work see the first Saturday and Sunday of the holiday as holiday days, as we would normally be working those two days before the actual remaining week holiday commences

does that make sense?

General_Grant

FlorayG said:

Statutory holiday is 28 days a year including Bank Holidays, so if you work the BH then you are being short changed whatever your hours because even on a six day week thats only 24 days

Statutory holiday is 5.6 weeks and bank holidays can be included in that time.
(Though it can be converted to days when making calculations, the legislation is given in weeks.)

General_Grant

I believe you will know that your employer is required to give you a written (principal) statement of employment particulars on or before your first day of employment.
So what does yours say about

• hours and days of work and if and how they may vary (also if employees or workers will have to work on Sundays, etc)
• holiday entitlement (and if that includes public holidays)

pinkshoes

As your hours are irregular, then I think the holiday should be given in hours based on the AVERAGE hours worked in a day. 

(so 40.8 + 35.42)/2 = 38.11 hours per week. 

For 5.6 weeks holiday, that should be 5.6 x 38.11 = 213.4 hours holiday per year. (that includes bank holidays in the calculation).

So if you have to take your holiday July to October when you only work 35.42 hours a week, then 213.4/35.42 = 6 weeks to take. 

(Likewise if you took holiday December to June it would be 5.2 weeks. 

I'd check your contract, but just because something is written into a contract, doesn't mean it is correct. I once got offered a role doing Tues/Wed/Thurs and my contract stipulated 20 days holiday and any bank holidays that fell on my working day.

As I wasn't going to work Monday or Friday, then that meant that I'd only get 1 to 3 of the 8 bank holidays, which is not the 60% of them I should have got. I challenged this (politely) and they withdrew the job offer!