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I recently asked to work 4 out of 5 days a week.

The company came back with a contract amendment which looks fine, however there is one change which I do not understand:

The exact wording is:

Your annual leave and entitlement to Bank Holidays have been pro-rated. For the remainder of this holiday year you will accrue a total of 6 days which include Bank Holidays. Therefore, when you are off on a Bank Holiday this will need to be booked as leave.

I haven't signed yet. I checked on my holiday balance, and I currently have a 7 days balance. So it seems this will take one day off from now until the end of the year?

What calculation did they do, and how can I see what it will be for next year?

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2 Answers 2

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This is perfectly normal. It means that your holidays have been reduced, proportionally, based on the days you're working. You're working 20% less, so you're entitled to 20% less holiday.

Or in other words, if you multiply your current holiday entitlement by 0.8, you have your new holiday entitlement.

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    That makes sense - do you have any idea if it is easy to negotiating keeping the same holiday number?
    – nha
    Oct 11, 2018 at 9:56
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    @nha that would effectively be asking for a raise, since you'll be getting proportionally more free time.
    – Erik
    Oct 11, 2018 at 10:00
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    @nha I'd say very unlikely, especially because you asked to work part time. If they cut your hours and mandated that you worked part time, then you might have more leeway for negotiation.
    – berry120
    Oct 11, 2018 at 11:43
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    Thanks for the advice - I'll take the current offer :)
    – nha
    Oct 11, 2018 at 14:23
  • I'm in the same situation, working 4/5. How does that work when requesting PTO for example? Do I request 4 days off for 5 business days then? Since I am only working for 4 days a week. Wouldn't it be better to have the full number of holidays and then mention your one work day would just be 8 * 0.8 hours? Isn't it easier for both sides? I am working 4/5 but my schedule differs depending on the day so it's not the same everyday.
    – Burak Kaymakci
    Jan 10, 2022 at 10:23
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Check what your contract says: Is it X days plus bank holidays, or is it Y days including bank holidays. (Obviously the number Y would be higher).

If your contract says "X days plus bank holidays", then your entitlement to bank holidays should not be affected. However, if you work say Monday to Thursday, and there is a bank holiday on Friday, then you have no advantage of that bank holiday. So you are not entitled to 8 bank holidays anymore, but only those on your working days.

For your non-bank holiday, yes, your entitlement will go down by 20%. If you had 20 days holidays (enough to leave for four weeks), you would now have 16 days holiday (enough to leave for four weeks). Remember you need to take only four days holiday to take a week off, not five.

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  • interesting thinking - I accepted already, but good to keep in mind for the future.
    – nha
    Oct 19, 2018 at 21:45

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