bank holiday pay

[Guest]

hi,

i am sure someone on here can help me or point in the right direction for information.

I am in the process of considering changing to full time opening and in the past have paid staff during the time we are closed ( 6 weeks) and they have taken their own holidays during this time or elsewhere without pay. In changing to full time I will be offering them the statutory holiday entitlement but allow them to have complete control over when they take it. My question relates to bank holidays as not all staff work mondays or fridays and I was wondering how you manage this in your setting. Does it come out of the holiday entitlement? in which case the staff member loses some flexibility/choice over when they take holiday or do I add the bank holidays hours onto the entitlement in which case some staff would then get more paid holiday than other staff members?

[SueT]

Hello - staff who work full time i.e. 52 weeks of the year, are entitled to 5.6 weeks or 28 days holiday. Anyone who doesn't work full time on this basis is entitled to holiday on a prorata basis e.g. if they only work 3 days a week they will be entitled to 16.8 days a year. The entitlement can be inclusive of bank holidays - that is up to you, but for those who don't work on a bank holiday they are still entitled to the same statutory holiday pay based on their hours/days they work. It is difficult to explain, but hope this helps SueT

[Guest]

thank you Sue T, I have worked out how many hours each staff member will have pro rata but not sure what to do about bank holidays, I am trying to persuade them that this change is for the better and trying to 'sell it' as a good thing but not sure it will be if they have to take bank holidays from their holiday entitlement especially if they only work 3 days and 2 of those are mondays and fridays, they effectively lose a weeks holiday in bank holidays

[Inge]

I think this is one of those things you will need to discuss with them.. they will not be losing any holiday at all if they have to take it on the bank holidays, but will lose the flexibilty of them..by adding the extra hours they will be entitled to the full holiday entitlement rather than a pro rata part of it so this will be extra days.. / time which would cover some of the b/h

 

what happens currently if a b/h falls in a week you are open, do they get paid or not? eg May bh is usually beginning of a week open

 

compromise could be no pay for bank holidays at all and rest of holiday can be taken as flexible holiday... or give a choice of including them and getting the pay but less flexible time off..

[Rea]

Paying for bank holidays is up to you, there's nothing that says you have to. If you're closed you can choose not to pay and that way staff wont have to give up holiday.We pay our staff but they work Mondays on a rota basis,working 3 Mondays out of 4. It doesnt count as part of their holiday entitlement either, spoilt lot

[Stargrower]

Slightly off topic but be careful when you say 'complete control over when they take it.' I don't know how many staff you have, but you will probably need some kind of system or rule stating how many staff can take holiday at the same time.

[Guest]

yes i take your point Beehive, there are only 6 of us so some discretion will be needed, however at the moment they can only have holiday when we are closed so either christmas, whitsun or 3 weeks in the summer, no flexibility at all ( and that includes me). I think your idea of no pay if we are not open ie bank holidays is prehaps best Rea and then no impact on holiday entitlement but not sure how losing 5 extra days pay will go down though.

[Rea]

Well they'll be gaining by you being open longer so I doubt 5 days will worry them too much. Fingers crossed anyway

[Guest]

thanks Rea, but they won't be gaining as they have always been paid when we have been closed anyway, unless they could be said to be gaining as opening full time will add to the financial viability and therefore the sustainability of the business