Bank Holiday Entitlement for Part-Time Workers

Are you ensuring fair bank holiday entitlement for your part-time workers?

Equality among part-time employees can be elusive, especially when it comes to holiday entitlement. Two employees working identical hours may find differences in their holiday allowances.

This article explores effective strategies to ensure bank holiday entitlement is balanced and fair for part-time workers. If you’d prefer to save time, our holiday entitlement calculator does the heavy lifting for you, ensuring accuracy and fairness in holiday calculations.

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• Full-Time vs Part-Time Bank Holiday Entitlement
• Unfair Bank Holiday Entitlement for Part-Time Workers
• Pro-Rata Bank Holidays for Part-Time Workers
• Automate Part-Time Bank Holiday Entitlement with the Holiday Tracker

Full-Time vs Part-Time Bank Holiday Entitlement

Imagine a company with three employees: one full-time (Fred) and two part-time (Mary and Tony). Each full-time employee is entitled to 20 days holiday per year. In addition to those 20, they get bank holidays. We refer to these as public holidays; there are 8 in England and Wales.

Fred works full-time, so he has a total entitlement of 20 days’ holiday. He also gets all public holidays – in The Holiday Tracker, we show these on his calendar in light grey.

So essentially, Fred gets 28 days of holiday, but 8 are fixed dates.

Next, we have Mary and Tony. Both work four days a week: Mary works Mon-Thu, and Tony works Tue-Fri. Because they work 80% of the work week, they both get a part-time entitlement (80%), which gives them 16 days of holiday instead of 20.

Unfair Bank Holiday Entitlement for Part-Time Workers

Despite Mary and Tony both working the same hours, because Mary works on a Monday, and most of the public holidays fall on a Monday, she also scores for 7 of the 8 public holidays:

So, Mary gets 23 days of holiday (16 + 7), but 7 are fixed dates.

Because Tony doesn’t work on Mondays, he misses out on 4 extra public holidays, only getting 3 of the 8 public holidays:

So, Tony gets 19 days’ holiday (16 + 3), but 3 are fixed dates.

This results in Tony having 4 days less holiday (19) than Mary (23), despite working the same amount. This is an unfair part-time bank holiday entitlement.

Pro-Rata Bank Holidays for Part-Time Employees

To ensure both employees receive the same holiday entitlement, you should pro-rata the bank holidays too. 

Both employees work 80%, so they are entitled to 80% of the public holidays. 80% of 8 is 6.5 (rounded up to the nearest half-day), so we add that to the 16 days Mary and Tony get, giving them both 22.5 days.

Now, Tony and Mary BOTH get 22.5 days holiday. Compared to previously, when Mary had 23 days and Tony 19.

Because their entitlement now includes a proportion of the public holidays, we need to deduct the public holidays they each get the benefit of. For Mary that’s 7, leaving her with 15.5 days.  For Tony that’s 3, leaving him with 19.5. 

That might seem unfair to Mary, but remember, they both receive 22.5 days of holiday; it’s just that 7 of Mary’s holidays are on fixed dates, and only 3 of Tony’s are. It’s the same principle as Fred, who works full-time, receiving 28 days of holiday, with 8 of those days fixed.

Automate Part-Time Bank Holiday Entitlement with the Holiday Tracker

Calculating holiday entitlement is complex and tiresome, but using holiday management software like The Holiday Tracker simplifies the process, ensuring accuracy and compliance.  

Ensuring fair bank holiday entitlement for part-time workers is seamless with The Holiday Tracker. Our system auto-calculates annual leave for every unique schedule, making adjustments for part-time statuses, mid-year starts, or any changes in work patterns. 

Experience hassle-free holiday management – start your 7-day free trial or book a demo to see how The Holiday Tracker can guarantee accurate bank holidays for part-time workers with minimal effort.