Bank holiday entitlement for part-time workers

[spenny_b]

Afternoon PH collective,

My Wife works 2 days a week for a local "regeneration" organisation (a neighbourhood project, Lottery funded in the main), but the other day was told that because she's part-time, she's only entitled to 3.5 days of Public/Bank Holiday leave for the year (in addition to however many days she receives as "annual leave").

She works Mondays and Tuesdays, so the majority of BH's will naturally fall on one of her working days. She works in-hours only, no shift or out-of-hours work....can this be correct?...I thought everybody was entitled to all Bank Holidays, unless you work out-of-hours as partof your job (eg emergency services, pubs, restaurants, etc)

Thanks for any input,
S

[randlemarcus]

Not sure of the strict legalities, but I'd have thought she was able to decline to work in the office alone on those Bank Holidays. See which of her bosses fancies sitting behind a desk on a sunny Bank Holiday.

I presume they are trying to pay her less, rather than make her actually work?

[edc]

There is no 'right' to have bank holidays off. Entitlement has just increased to 5.6 weeks. Those on a normal 5 day wk would be entitled to 28 days or 20 plus bank holidays.

[spenny_b]

Thanks guys - I have to be honest, I'd always assumed everybody was entitled to BH's unless otherwise contracted, good job I'm not in the employment/HR game, eh?

Not sure what the motive is, but I wouldnt be surprised if it were neither financial or working more...the way they seem to work is very much "by the book"/"computer says no"!!

(Good point about working alone though, will have to remember that one!

[mcflurry]

edc said:

There is no 'right' to have bank holidays off.

Unless you work for a bank

[JustinP1]

spenny_b said:

Thanks guys - I have to be honest, I'd always assumed everybody was entitled to BH's unless otherwise contracted, good job I'm not in the employment/HR game, eh?

Not sure what the motive is, but I wouldnt be surprised if it were neither financial or working more...the way they seem to work is very much "by the book"/"computer says no"!!

(Good point about working alone though, will have to remember that one!

It would just be the rules.

I have to say though that getting 3.5 days of bank holidays off paid on top of her annual leave, that is 3.5 more than she is legally entitled to, which is pretty generous for a part time worker!

[skwdenyer]

randlemarcus said:

Not sure of the strict legalities, but I'd have thought she was able to decline to work in the office alone on those Bank Holidays. See which of her bosses fancies sitting behind a desk on a sunny Bank Holiday.

I presume they are trying to pay her less, rather than make her actually work?

Why would she be able to decline to work alone?

[spikeyhead]

How would she feel if she normally worked Thursdays and Fridays yet a colleague worked only Mondays?

[randlemarcus]

skwdenyer said:

randlemarcus said:

Not sure of the strict legalities, but I'd have thought she was able to decline to work in the office alone on those Bank Holidays. See which of her bosses fancies sitting behind a desk on a sunny Bank Holiday.

I presume they are trying to pay her less, rather than make her actually work?

Why would she be able to decline to work alone?

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/workalone.htm
So there are no hard and fast rules about it, but if they are sticklers for the rules, and she has lodged an objection, I'd have thought they'd have been reluctant to press her to do it. Not usually a fan of barrack room lawyers, but there's a difference between telling someone they have to work on days they'd assumed they have off, and telling them they're not going to be paid for not coming to work, IYSWIM.

[skwdenyer]

randlemarcus said:

skwdenyer said:

randlemarcus said:

Not sure of the strict legalities, but I'd have thought she was able to decline to work in the office alone on those Bank Holidays. See which of her bosses fancies sitting behind a desk on a sunny Bank Holiday.

I presume they are trying to pay her less, rather than make her actually work?

Why would she be able to decline to work alone?

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/workalone.htm
So there are no hard and fast rules about it, but if they are sticklers for the rules, and she has lodged an objection, I'd have thought they'd have been reluctant to press her to do it. Not usually a fan of barrack room lawyers, but there's a difference between telling someone they have to work on days they'd assumed they have off, and telling them they're not going to be paid for not coming to work, IYSWIM.

OK, I've read all of that. That boils down to the following:

• there's no prohibition against working alone;
• there's no presumption against working alone;
• you have to carry out a risk assessment (which you'd do anyway).

If she's working in an office on her own (as described) and there are no special hazards in the office, then she can work there. End of IMHO. The world may have gone mad, but not quite yet in that regard. A very, very large number of small businesses would close if there was such a prohibition - think of shop assistants in small shops, for instance.