Am I loosing out on holidays?

Mycroft H

Folks, question as this is bothering me. Am I being short changed on holidays?

I work a compressed work week pattern, shift work. 3 (Sunday. Monday, Tues, Wed every second) days one week and 4 the next; 36 and 48hrs. I work 14 days a month.

My rota follows this pattern ad infinitum, bank holiday or no bank holiday. We've seemingly got nothing in the sort of a day in leiu for the bank holidays, and it's in our contract that we're expected to work 4 of every 6 bank holidays. No mention of any other entitlements in respect to this.


I'm entitled to 16 days annual leave and that's it.

We're not getting anything extra for bank holidays, pay or days in lieu.


What's the story. How do I approach this problem when I'm on probation.

Youngblood.III

Short answer...Let it be till you're 104 weeks employed, only then will full employment protection be applicable to you.
Or you could find yourself out the door for just about anything.

Liam McPoyle

Mycroft H wrote: »

Folks, question as this is bothering me. Am I being short changed on holidays?

I work a compressed work week pattern, shift work. 3 (Sunday. Monday, Tues, Wed every second) days one week and 4 the next; 36 and 48hrs. I work 14 days a month.

My rota follows this pattern ad infinitum, bank holiday or no bank holiday. We've seemingly got nothing in the sort of a day in leiu for the bank holidays, and it's in our contract that we're expected to work 4 of every 6 bank holidays. No mention of any other entitlements in respect to this.


I'm entitled to 16 days annual leave and that's it.

We're not getting anything extra for bank holidays, pay or days in lieu.


What's the story. How do I approach this problem when I'm on probation.

You are entitled to 8% of every hour you work for holidays, see here for other ways of working it out.

Link

Manach

Not legal advice but...
In Ireland, the working time act would cover this and likely be found in the Citizen information site in greater detail. But the AFAIR summary, this act would over-ride any employment provisions (ie cannot be excluded). The time-off is calculated 3 ways, a common way is by hours worked, usually working out at ~ 8.5% of total time work once a certain point reach. As well, Bank-holidays might be deferred due to work committments but have to count as time-off in almost all circumstances (ie Guards/soldiers etc being exempt.)

Mycroft H

I'm pretty sure I'm entitled to a minimum of of 14 days annual leave ex of public holidays.

That would allow me to take an unbroken leave stretch of 4 weeks. I think.

The public holidays are another issue. and it's bothering me.

davo10

Mycroft H wrote: »

That would allow me to take an unbroken leave stretch of 4 weeks. I think.

.

As your work pattern is not the norm 9-5, 5 days pw, I'll leave it to the more mathematically minded to work out your entitlement.

I can tell you though that you are wrong about the above statement, you are not entitled to 4 weeks unbroken leave. You can apply for leave but it is at the discretion of your employer and only the amount of time accrued is due. Therefore to take 4 weeks (all leave entitlement) unbroken, technically you would not have accrued this until the last 4 weeks of your working year. Typically the max employers allow is 2 weeks unbroken but every company has their own policy and you can ask for a month but you probably won't get it.

Public holidays like good Friday are working days like any other and you have no extra entitlement, they are different from bank holidays.

If it bothers you, contact HR for clarification, tread carefully though as while on probation or even within the first year of employment, you haven't as much protection as a full time employee of more than one year service.

Mrs OBumble

davo10 wrote: »

Typically the max employers allow is 2 weeks unbroken but every company has their own policy and you can ask for a month but you probably won't get it.

Public holidays like good Friday are working days like any other and you have no extra entitlement, they are different from bank holidays.

Ahh, there's a bit more to it than company policy.


There's a few perspectives.

Legal - ref: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0020/sec0019.html#sec19
Point 3 in this says: that if you work for more than 8 months in a year, then your leave for that year must include an unbroken period of 2 weeks - unless you and your employer (or your union and employer, etc) agree otherwise.
So in most cases, you HAVE to be given 2 weeks continuous (which may include public holidays, so may use less than 2 weeks leave to get it).

Health and safety perspective: I'm told (though don't have any links) that 'best practice' in this area says that all employees should have at least one 2 week break per annum. That certainly fits my experience, where I need two weeks to really get a break.

Industry specific: some industries have a rule which says that all employees must be fully out of the workplace for a continuous two week period each year. That means no logging in remotely, no dropping by for a few minutes or to have coffee with a colleague. This is totally for the company/audit perspective - and I'm surprised it's not enforced in retail in Ireland (because staff-shrinkage or ahh, "cash-management-techniquues" can be an issue in this industry).


OP, based on your work pattern (7 days per fortnight), I would say your minimum annual leave should be 4 weeks leave = 14 days. This is the same no matter which of the ways of calculating annual leave is used. (as per http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/leave_and_holidays/annual_leave_public_holidays.html) - becuase they all have the "subject to a maximum of four weeks" or are based on the idea of "working weeks".

It's possible that your employer, rather than deal with bank holidays, has done some maths to prove that giving you and extra four paid days each week is the equivalent to giving you extra AL for the bank holidays that you work. I'm not sure whether their maths is justified or not (suspect it might be a bit light) - but I'd tread carefully about being too aggrieved until you have some information about this.

Cuddlesworth

12 hours shifts, 3 + 4 per week. Assuming first 15 minutes break and second 30 minute break are unpaid. Average of 42 hours per 7 days/1 week minus 45 minutes a shift unpaid break = roughly 2 hours 40 minutes per week/ 2.625.

Thats 39 hours 20 minutes or 39.33 hours per week.

365 days per year. 52.1 weeks.

52.1 * 39.33 = 2049 hours per year worked.

(2049/100)*8= 164 hours holidays

Average shift is 11 hours 15 minutes(12 hours minus 45 minutes break), 11.25 hours worked.

164/11.25= 14.5 days holidays a year.

You would need to adjust that to take into account longer breaks if applicable, eg a paid 15 minute break plus a unpaid hour long break.


For bank holidays,

My understanding is that the part time rules apply to shift workers. If you work on the day of the public holiday you are entitled to either a day off or 1/5th of your weekly wage paid extra to you

If you are not working on the day of a public holiday you are entitled to 1/5 of your average weekly wage for that day.

When I worked shift they simply added 9 days to our annual entitlement and left it at that. I don't think they were legally obliged to do that.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0020/index.html

Part-time employees
If you have worked for your employer at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday and the public holiday falls on a day you normally work you are entitled to a day's pay for the public holiday. If you are required to work that day you are entitled to an additional day's pay.

If you do not normally work on that particular day you should receive one-fifth of your weekly pay. Even if you may never be rostered to work on a public holiday you are entitled to one-fifth of your weekly pay as compensation for the public holiday.

If you do not have normal daily or weekly working hours, under SI 475/1997, an average of your day’s pay or the fifth of your weekly pay is calculated over the 13 weeks you worked before the public holiday.

In all of the above situations your employer may choose to give you paid time off instead of pay for the public holiday.

Your entitlement to public holidays is set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Most employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays. One exception is part-time employees who have not worked for their employer at least 40 hours in total in the 5 weeks before the public holiday.

Employees who qualify for public holiday benefit will be entitled to one of the following:

A paid day off on the public holiday
An additional day of annual leave
An additional day's pay
A paid day off within a month of the public holiday
The Organisation of Working Time Act provides that you may ask your employer at least 21 days before a public holiday, which of the alternatives will apply. If your employer fails to respond at least 14 days before the public holiday, you are entitled to take the actual public holiday as a paid day off.

The Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay For Holidays) Regulations (SI 475/1997) set out the appropriate rate of daily pay.

Public holidays falling on a weekend
Where a public holiday falls on a weekend, you do not have any automatic legal entitlement to have the next working day off work. This occurred in 2013 when St Patrick's Day (17 March) fell on a Sunday. This meant that Monday 18 March 2013 was not a public holiday. Your employer can require you to attend work on those days. When this happens you are entitled to one of the following:

A paid day off within a month of the public holiday
An additional day of annual leave
An additional day's pay