Part time holiday entitlement question

Sallyanne100

Please can anyone help as I confused on what is correct for my holiday entitlement. 

I work part time, 4 days a week (5 hours per day) and have a permanent job. The days I work are Tuesday to Friday, I do not work on Mondays. 

The exact wording on my contract says;

 ‘Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays.’

Based on the above how much holiday entitlement should I have for 2025? 

The reason I ask is that I believe it should be 112 hours - not sure if this is right?

The company accountant said in 2025, four bank holidays land on days I normally work, so 20 hours of my allowance are to be deducted from my holiday allowance leaving me 92 hours to take as holiday.  The other 4 bank holidays that land on a Monday (which I don’t work). Do they need to be considered too or irrelevant? 

Does that sound correct? I was not sure because of the wording on my contract. 

My company is notoriously bad at getting this kind of thing wrong, and staff have no confidence in what is being told, as it constantly changes every year (it’s a small company). 

To add - will the holiday entitlement figure change in 2026? As 3 holidays fall on my ‘working days’ next year? Whilst the other 5 bank holidays fall on a Monday (when I don’t work on Mondays). 

The company closes on all public/bank holidays. 

I want to get this clarified once and for all. 

Things got so bad with this, that another colleague changed their day off so they now work on Mondays.  Due to being told previously-‘as they didn’t work on a Monday, bank holiday Mondays did not qualify for them’. 

Thank you for reading

SiliconChip

Assuming that the full time employees work 35 hours per work then 112 hours is the correct figure for your total holiday allowance (full time 196 hours x 20 / 35). The calculation of 92 hours available for you to book as holiday in 2025 seems correct, and yes, if there are 5 Monday bank holidays in 2026 then your bookable allowance will be 96 hours.

itsthelittlethings

You should have 28 days. If a full time contract is 40 hours (this may not be the case), you are working half time, so would get 14 days. That is 112 hours. You get four bank holidays (20 hours) so have 92 hours left to take.

A full week might not be 40 hours, if so you would have to redo the maths.

General_Grant

Sallyanne100 said:

. . . . 

The exact wording on my contract says;

 ‘Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays.’

. . . .

That's quite unusual wording. I would have expected it to be statutory including BHs rather than plus BHs. 

However, if that is what it says, a full-time person should receive 28 days statutory holiday plus 8 (in a normal year) BHs.  Thus 36 days.

It is not lawful to give a part-timer less holiday proportionately than a full-timer.

As you work 4 days a week (and a full-time person works 5 or more), your holiday entitlement would be 36 x 4/5.  So 28.8 days.  They can either allow the exact amount of time as holiday or round up to 29 days.

28.8 days at 5 hours/day is 144 hours

itsthelittlethings

General_Grant said:

Sallyanne100 said:

. . . . 

The exact wording on my contract says;

 ‘Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays.’

. . . .

That's quite unusual wording. I would have expected it to be statutory including BHs rather than plus BHs. 

However, if that is what it says, a full-time person should receive 28 days statutory holiday plus 8 (in a normal year) BHs.  Thus 36 days.

It is not lawful to give a part-timer less holiday proportionately than a full-timer.

As you work 4 days a week (and a full-time person works 5 or more), your holiday entitlement would be 36 x 4/5.  So 28.8 days.  They can either allow the exact amount of time as holiday or round up to 29 days.

28.8 days at 5 hours/day is 144 hours

I’m pretty sure they mean 28 including bank holidays.

EnPointe

General_Grant said:

Sallyanne100 said:

. . . . 

The exact wording on my contract says;

 ‘Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays.’

. . . .

That's quite unusual wording. I would have expected it to be statutory including BHs rather than plus BHs. 

However, if that is what it says, a full-time person should receive 28 days statutory holiday plus 8 (in a normal year) BHs.  Thus 36 days.

It is not lawful to give a part-timer less holiday proportionately than a full-timer.

As you work 4 days a week (and a full-time person works 5 or more), your holiday entitlement would be 36 x 4/5.  So 28.8 days.  They can either allow the exact amount of time as holiday or round up to 29 days.

28.8 days at 5 hours/day is 144 hours

statutory  holiday is 4 weeks  of annual leave plus bank holidays  , i.e. 5.6 weeks in total , no where does the  statement imply  additional leave . 

Andy_L

EnPointe said:

General_Grant said:

Sallyanne100 said:

. . . . 

The exact wording on my contract says;

 ‘Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays.’

. . . .

That's quite unusual wording. I would have expected it to be statutory including BHs rather than plus BHs. 

However, if that is what it says, a full-time person should receive 28 days statutory holiday plus 8 (in a normal year) BHs.  Thus 36 days.

It is not lawful to give a part-timer less holiday proportionately than a full-timer.

As you work 4 days a week (and a full-time person works 5 or more), your holiday entitlement would be 36 x 4/5.  So 28.8 days.  They can either allow the exact amount of time as holiday or round up to 29 days.

28.8 days at 5 hours/day is 144 hours

statutory  holiday is 4 weeks  of annual leave plus bank holidays  , i.e. 5.6 weeks in total , no where does the  statement imply  additional leave . 

no. the statutory (minimum) holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks (ie 28 days). Employers are free to include BH in that 28 days or give them as extra holiday ETA: or have them work BHs and have other days off instead

So the wording should be either
Statutory holiday entitlement (28 days)
Statutory holiday entitlement including BH (still 28 days but avoids doubt)
Statutory holiday entitlement plus BH (ie 36 days)


https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights

General_Grant

EnPointe said:

General_Grant said:

Sallyanne100 said:

. . . . 

The exact wording on my contract says;

 ‘Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays.’

. . . .

That's quite unusual wording. I would have expected it to be statutory including BHs rather than plus BHs. 

However, if that is what it says, a full-time person should receive 28 days statutory holiday plus 8 (in a normal year) BHs.  Thus 36 days.

It is not lawful to give a part-timer less holiday proportionately than a full-timer.

As you work 4 days a week (and a full-time person works 5 or more), your holiday entitlement would be 36 x 4/5.  So 28.8 days.  They can either allow the exact amount of time as holiday or round up to 29 days.

28.8 days at 5 hours/day is 144 hours

statutory  holiday is 4 weeks  of annual leave plus bank holidays  , i.e. 5.6 weeks in total , no where does the  statement imply  additional leave . 

History lesson:
Way way back the entitlement was 4 weeks (20 days).  This came from a European Directive.
It had been wrongly assumed that our 8 Bank Holidays would be given in addition.
In order to get that extra time in, the entitlement was statutorily changed to 5.6 weeks.
So statutory holiday entitlement is now 28 days for someone working 5 or more days a week.

The statement of "Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays" doesn't imply but states it is more than statutory as it uses the word "plus".

General_Grant

itsthelittlethings said:

General_Grant said:

Sallyanne100 said:

. . . . 

The exact wording on my contract says;

 ‘Statutory holiday entitlement will be paid, plus bank holidays.’

. . . .

That's quite unusual wording. I would have expected it to be statutory including BHs rather than plus BHs. 

However, if that is what it says, a full-time person should receive 28 days statutory holiday plus 8 (in a normal year) BHs.  Thus 36 days.

It is not lawful to give a part-timer less holiday proportionately than a full-timer.

As you work 4 days a week (and a full-time person works 5 or more), your holiday entitlement would be 36 x 4/5.  So 28.8 days.  They can either allow the exact amount of time as holiday or round up to 29 days.

28.8 days at 5 hours/day is 144 hours

I’m pretty sure they mean 28 including bank holidays.

But that is not what they have written.
Maybe they never changed the wording from when the statutory entitlement was just 4  weeks (20 days).