Bank holiday entitlement for part timers – how do I calculate it?

One option is to calculate pro-rated bank holiday entitlement according to the number of hours that the part-time employee works, irrespective of whether they work on the days on which bank holidays fall.

For example, if full-time employees are entitled to eight bank holidays a year, in addition to their normal annual leave entitlement, a full-time employee working a five-day week of 37.5 hours would be entitled to 60 hours of leave on bank holidays (i.e. eight days of seven and a half hours). A part-time employee working a three-day week of 22.5 hours would be entitled to a pro-rated bank holiday allowance of 36 hours (22.5 ÷ 37.5 x 60 = 36 hours).

The part-time employee should book the 36 hours’ pro-rated bank holiday entitlement as annual leave under the organisation’s normal procedure. If the employee is scheduled to work on any bank holiday, they would need to book this as annual leave to take the day off. If the business is closed on bank holidays, the employer could require the employee to take annual leave if they are scheduled to work on these days, by including this in the employee’s contract or giving appropriate notice.