You know you can't discriminate against part-time employees. So how do you calculate how may Public Holidays a part-time employee should have?
The issue arises because some of the Bank Holidays take place on specific days of the week - four are always on a Monday, one on a Friday and the remaining 3 rotate each year. This means that up to 6 of the 8 Bank Holidays in a calendar year could fall on a Monday!
If these Bank Holidays are not managed carefully part timers who are contracted to work on fixed days of the week could have more or less than their share of Bank Holidays.
Implications
Having a system that doesn't even things out may not only lead to performance and morale issues. It could also leave organisations open to claims under the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 or claims of indirect discrimination under the Sex discrimination Act 1975.
This means it is important for an organisation to ensure that whichever system they use for managing Bank Holidays, part timers are not treated more or less favourably than those on a full-time working week.
A fair and practical solution
There are several practical and fair ways of managing Bank Holidays. Which one is most appropriate for an organisation will depend on a number of factors including: the nature of business, whether there is a requirement for some or all employees to work Bank Holidays and the working patterns of part time employees.
The most commonly used system is to add each employee's Bank Holiday entitlement to their Annual Leave entitlement and then divide the total by the pro-rata hours the part time employee works. So, if full time employees work five days a week and have say 22 days holiday and 8 Public Holidays - a total of 30 days, a part-time employee working three days a week will have a total holiday entitlement that is three fifths of a five day workers entitlement - a total of 18 days. Then it doesn't matter which days the part-time employee is scheduled to work; everyone gets the same total number of days off. But, a small caution; if your part-time staff work a different number of hours each day you will have to calculate the number of hours entitlement they should have off. Otherwise everyone will be tempted to take all their holidays on their longest days.
A last word of warning!
However an organisation chooses to manage Bank Holidays, it is important that the employee's terms of employment matches your procedure. If the terms outlined in an employee's contract do not correspond with practice, you face a 'breach of contract' claim.
For more information regarding managing Bank Holidays or to ensure your contracts of employment effectively cover the necessary points, please contact Harriet Lear, by email harriet@hradvantage.co.uk or by calling 01404 42359.
April/May 2007
