Although there has recently been at least one case suggesting that part-timers who do not work on Mondays are not entitled to paid time off in lieu of Bank Holiday Mondays, the intention of the legislation is quite clearly that part-timers, like full-timers, should be able to take sufficient paid leave to be away from work now for 4.8 weeks (24 days) in a full leave-year, and to be away for 5.6 weeks (28 days) in a full leave year from 1 April 2009. However, BERR (the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - formerly the DTI) points out on its website that a week's leave is 'the same as the length of time you work in a normal week' - so people who normally work less than full time get less paid time off, on a pro rata basis. Where full-time workers get more paid annual leave than the statutory requirement, then part-timers will also be entitled to more holiday leave, on a pro-rata basis.
Holiday entitlement has to be worked out on the number of hours normally worked in the week, if necessary averaged over a 12-week period. So if you have a part-timer who has worked 32 hours for six of the last 12 weeks, and just five hours a week for the rest of the period, his (or her) annual holiday entitlement (assuming he works a full leave year) would now be:
32 x 6 = 192
5 x 6 = 30
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Total hours: 222
Average hours worked per week: 222/12 = 18.5
Annual holiday entitlement: 18.5 x 4.8 = 88.8 hours
This assumes that the same working pattern is maintained throughout the year. If it varies, you may need to work out the average working week on an annual basis, though you may not withhold paid holiday in the meantime - you would have to make an estimate, but reserve the right to amend it later in the year, or obtain your worker's written permission (a legal requirement) to recover holiday money overpaid.
The sums involved may well leave you with awkward fractions of holiday time to allocate and pay for. There are various ways of dealing with these:
- you can give pay in lieu of time off (but only for the 'new' holiday time, only by agreement, and only until 1 April 2009);
- you can round the time off up (but not down) to the nearest day or half day;
- you can ask the worker to carry the 'new' holiday time forward to the following year (but everyone must be required to take at least the 'core' four weeks of holiday - or the part-time equivalent - in the current leave year);
- you can give them as part of an otherwise unpaid day off; or
- you can use them to allow the worker to come in late or go early.
