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I work at an office-based company in the UK where almost all employees work a regular 5 day week. We have 25 days holiday, plus Bank Holidays, and it is assumed that the office will be closed on Bank Holidays and holiday isn't tracked for those days - they're just not working days, like weekends.

I'm looking at going significantly part-time - only working Mondays & Tuesdays. Obviously the holiday allowance will be pro-rata'd to reflect the reduced days.

A naive approach would be to take it down to 10 days. But because UK BHs are predominantly Mondays, then if BHs are still not couunted towards holiday, then I'm suddenly getting way more BHs per working days than my colleagues. On the other hand if I have to take holiday to cover the BHs, then now I getting screwed out of holiday ... I effectively don't get any BHs.

It seems to me that the fair approach would be to say that my Holiday allowance is actually 33 days, including BHs, and my pro-rata Holiday allowance is 40% of that ... 13.2 days

But ... now I have a non-integer number of days holiday, which is presumably going to be a PITA for someone to deal with.

Obviously, the final decision will lie with my individual company, but what should I expect? What is normal?

Q: Is it common to have non-integer amounts of holiday allowance for part-time workers, in the UK?

Q: What is the common approach to holiday taken by UK office-based companies for part-time regular-day workers, so that Bank Holidays are handled fairly

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  • That I think will depend on the regulations specific to each company, as well as how each of them decides to manage this internally. Seems that as a company they have to define such cases in the contracts they give. In other words, this may already be in your contract, if not, then your company should decide this according to their guidelines and regulations that may apply.
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Feb 12, 2018 at 23:28
  • @DarkCygnus Oh definitely - 100% I'll be asking how they deal with it. I just want to know what the norm is, when I go into that conversation. If they tell me that BH are now holiday days, then should I argue the point and say that's not normal, or is it just tough luck? Is having partial holiday allowances a standard thing for part-timers?
    – Brondahl
    Feb 12, 2018 at 23:32
  • If you should or not argue is up to you (although not sure if that would be wise or recommended). The last question you commented: "Is having partial holiday allowances a standard thing for part-timers?", is perhaps less off-topic than the one you are asking here, so consider rephrasing your question
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Feb 12, 2018 at 23:34
  • I don't really see how "What's the normal approach to this scenario for UK businesses" is off-topic. It's no difference to the numerous "my company did this after they {made me an offer, gave me a promotion, fired me, fired my manager, etc., etc}. Is this normal? " questions
    – Brondahl
    Feb 12, 2018 at 23:38
  • Many of those "is this normal" questions are opinion based most of the time (even though some may escape closing). Besides, the way you wrote it in the question is different to how it sounds in the new version you commented. I suggest you phrase your post more like that other question I pointed out, as I feel it will mitigate the off-topicness (asking for company-specific regulations) of the current phrasing. Word choice can do wonders in this site.
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Feb 12, 2018 at 23:41

2 Answers 2

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sometimes you just get a slam dunk amirite???

https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement/y

That's your legal requirement right there.

In short, your employer can count the statutory holidays as part of your total annual leave.

As for the partial holidays - I would round to the nearest half/whole number. In your case, legally, the 13.2 -> 13.5

I guess you could argue it is 14, but you probably just want to leave at midday one day right? I don't know, it's only 1.5 hours, it's really your call there.

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  • Well that was easy, if you knew it existed :) Awesome, Thanks!
    – Brondahl
    Feb 13, 2018 at 0:25
  • @Brondahl see, you were asking for legal/company advice. Good thing bharal knew of the existence of this link, otherwise people don't usually look beyond the off-topic phrasing and just VTC without leaving feedback. Still, the questi on may still be closed, as the way you ask it doesn't sound too on-topic. The suggested question I remarked would be on-topic and still this answer would apply to it (as it is the legal and fair way of handling this).
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Feb 13, 2018 at 0:31
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    The link does the calculation for statutory holidays, that is for the holidays that you are legally entitled to. Most people have more holidays than that in their contract.
    – gnasher729
    Feb 13, 2018 at 1:01
  • I wouldn't sweat the issue I was on two days a week in the UK and normally worked Mon/Tues day the company wasn't bothered about bank holidays as most good employers don't count bank holidays as a part of your statutory leave.
    – Neuromancer
    Feb 13, 2018 at 3:28
  • my company had lots of part timers, and they did it, as people who didn't work mondays felt cheated of bank holidays.
    – WendyG
    Feb 13, 2018 at 11:08
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This is how one large public sector organisation handles the pro rata calculations. Note that here a 'full' full-time worker is entitled to 30 days "plus stats [public holidays]" per calendar year, which is considerably more than the statutory minimum.

  1. Compute 7.6 * number of days worked per week
  2. Round to the nearest whole number [there is no note as to, and none of the examples show, what happens about 0.5]
  3. Calculate the number of public holidays that fall on one of the employee's working days, for the calendar year in question
  4. Subtract that number from the number obtained in step 2
  5. The result is the annual leave quota for that calendar year.

You will see that for a 5-day-a-week employee, this results in (7.6 * 5) - 8 = 30, as required.

For a 4-day-a-week employee who doesn't work Mondays, for 2018 this results in (7.6 * 4) - 3 (Good Friday, Xmas, Boxing Day) -> 27.

For a 2-day-a-week employee who works Mondays and Tuesdays, for 2018 this results in (7.6 * 2) - 6 (New Year's Day, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring, Summer, Xmas) -> 9.

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