My normal working week is 4 days and my holiday entitlement has been 22.4 days per year (5.6 x 4). I work bank holidays when they fall on my usual working day. The company I work for has recently introduced a new payroll/employee management system. We use this system to check our rota, book holiday, access payslips etc. There have been a fair few ‘teething problems’ but they believe they are sorted now.
My holiday entitlement has now been reduced to 21 days. When I click on the link for how this is calculated I get the following. “If you’re a flexible employee, you’re entitled to 5.6 x the AVERAGE days per week worked over the last 52 weeks per year. E.g. if you work on average 3.81 days per week you would be entitled to 21 days paid holiday a year.
I think my average has been affected by 2 or 3 weeks in January when I worked a 3 day week. I work in a retail setting where traditionally trading is much reduced during January and February, therefore staff are taken back to their contracted hours (my contracted hours are 20, although that’s another story!). During this time my manager asked if I would prefer to work a longer day and therefore less days during the week. A no brainier really, so opted for the longer days over 3 days. There was no mention that this may have repercussions on my holiday entitlement. To be fair, I doubt my manager would have known this at the time as this new system wasn’t in place then.
I completely understand that holiday PAY is worked out and paid at an average rate.
A couple of questions arise from this.
1. If holiday entitlement is worked out on an average of days work, surely the entitlement would change all the time.
2. If I want a week off, I still need to request 4 days annual leave.
3. 5.6 x 3.81 = 21.33. I don’t think they can round down (yes, I know it’s only .33 of a day, but still.)
4. There has been no communication from the company regarding any change in how holiday entitlement is worked out.
5. Does this not take the entitlement below the legal minimum.
My son and his girlfriend also work for the same company. My son is a salaried employee and his entitlement is shown as 28 days. However his girlfriend is hourly paid (like me) and using this system of average days worked her entitlement has been worked out at 26 days. Their shift pattern is identical in terms of day’s worked, some weeks she can work an hour or so less. Surely this can’t be right?
I haven’t officially approached the company regarding this, as I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t misunderstanding the way holiday entitlement is worked out.
Many thanks for reading, and any help would be gratefully received.
My holiday entitlement has now been reduced to 21 days. When I click on the link for how this is calculated I get the following. “If you’re a flexible employee, you’re entitled to 5.6 x the AVERAGE days per week worked over the last 52 weeks per year. E.g. if you work on average 3.81 days per week you would be entitled to 21 days paid holiday a year.
I think my average has been affected by 2 or 3 weeks in January when I worked a 3 day week. I work in a retail setting where traditionally trading is much reduced during January and February, therefore staff are taken back to their contracted hours (my contracted hours are 20, although that’s another story!). During this time my manager asked if I would prefer to work a longer day and therefore less days during the week. A no brainier really, so opted for the longer days over 3 days. There was no mention that this may have repercussions on my holiday entitlement. To be fair, I doubt my manager would have known this at the time as this new system wasn’t in place then.
I completely understand that holiday PAY is worked out and paid at an average rate.
A couple of questions arise from this.
1. If holiday entitlement is worked out on an average of days work, surely the entitlement would change all the time.
2. If I want a week off, I still need to request 4 days annual leave.
3. 5.6 x 3.81 = 21.33. I don’t think they can round down (yes, I know it’s only .33 of a day, but still.)
4. There has been no communication from the company regarding any change in how holiday entitlement is worked out.
5. Does this not take the entitlement below the legal minimum.
My son and his girlfriend also work for the same company. My son is a salaried employee and his entitlement is shown as 28 days. However his girlfriend is hourly paid (like me) and using this system of average days worked her entitlement has been worked out at 26 days. Their shift pattern is identical in terms of day’s worked, some weeks she can work an hour or so less. Surely this can’t be right?
I haven’t officially approached the company regarding this, as I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t misunderstanding the way holiday entitlement is worked out.
Many thanks for reading, and any help would be gratefully received.
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