Why Your Part-Time Employees’ Bank Holiday Pay May Be Wrong

Part-Time Bank Holidays: Getting The Entitlement Right

Are employees automatically entitled to bank holidays off? What about part-time employees? What if the holiday falls on one of their non-working days?

Many employers assume that their part-time employees should get the same bank holiday entitlement as everyone else, regardless of their working pattern. If the bank holiday falls on a day that they don’t normally work, then they should get an additional day to make up for this, right?

That would seem like a logical assumption and would even seem to be supported by how bank holidays themselves function; if the Christmas or New Year bank holidays fall on a weekend, for example, we get the Monday and sometimes Tuesday off instead.

The problem is that this assumption can create unequal entitlement between part-time employees on different hours and contracts. If bank holidays are offered as a flat number of days, it creates problems if one employee works Mondays, but another doesn’t, or if their shift lengths vary.

This is a common problem we see employers fall into, but the fix is simple: bank holidays should be pro-rated for part-time employees in line with their working pattern. We’ll explain how to do this for different employees below.

Do bank holidays form part of your employees’ statutory annual leave allowance?

No employee is automatically entitled to bank holidays off work; it’s down to their employer to decide whether the business closes on bank holidays or not. If it doesn’t, then the question about bank holiday entitlement is irrelevant. Employees should get at least their statutory minimum holiday entitlement to use on the days they choose.

If the business does close for bank holidays, then the next question would be whether these will form part of the employees’ statutory 5.6 weeks annual leave allowance or sit on top. This should be included in their employment contracts.

The issue isn’t usually in making these decisions, it’s what comes afterwards when employers try to apply them to part-time employees.

What if bank holidays fall on non-working days?

Let’s take the example of two part-time employees, Jack and Jill. They both work 5 hours per day over three days per week for a total of 15 hours, however Jack works Mon, Tue, Wed and Jill works Tue, Wed, Thu. Full-time employees are entitled to 28 days annual leave inclusive of bank holidays.

Jack and Jill both have 16.8 days as their minimum holiday entitlement per year (5.6 x 3 days). However, this includes bank holidays. Since most of these fall on Mondays or Fridays, they almost never fall on days where Jill is scheduled to work.

There are a couple of mistakes their employer could make here.

If they assume that Jill needs to receive bank holidays off like Jack does, they may give her extra days of annual leave as replacement days. This would mean she gets more total days of paid leave per year than Jack.

More commonly, they may assume that both employees need to receive the same number of bookable annual leave days (days they can take as they choose), and so increase Jack’s allowance, meaning that he gets more total days of paid leave than Jill.

The problem is that the correct treatment in this scenario looks unfair to Jack, when it actually isn’t.

Even if part-time employees work the same fixed days, if their shift lengths are different, we can end up in a similar situation.

What if employees work different shift lengths on bank holiday days?

Bill and Ben both work Mon, Tue, Wed; however, Bill works 4 hours on Mon and 8 on Tue & Wed, while Ben works 8 on Mon & Tue and 4 on Wed. They both work 20 hours per week, but with different shift patterns.

A common mistake is assuming that a days-based calculation is still appropriate for staff whose shift lengths aren’t regular across their working pattern. This doesn’t just apply to bank holidays, but to calculating their entire holiday entitlement for the year.

Employers should calculate and track these employees’ leave balances in hours rather than days. This is because they need to receive at least 5.6 weeks, but the actual number of paid hours they receive will depend on which days they choose to book as leave. A day when they were supposed to work 8 hours and a day when they were supposed to work 4 hours are very different and could leave them short of their statutory minimum.

The calculation is a 3-step process:

Bill and Ben are both entitled to 112 hours of annual leave per year (5.6 x 20).

If there are 5 bank holiday Mondays, then Bill’s allowance is reduced by 20 hours (5 x 4 hours) but Ben’s is reduced by 40 hours (5 x 8 hours). Bill will have 92 hours to book as he chooses, but Ben will only have 72 hours. While this looks unfair to Ben, they are still receiving the same number of paid hours off work each year.

How can I make sure I’m pro-rating bank holidays properly?

Here’s a checklist you can use as a quick self-audit:

If it’s been a while since your contracts were reviewed, if you didn’t get a professional to write them, or if you don’t have formal contracts at all, then we highly recommend taking some HR advice. This is particularly important given the recent implementation of the Employment Rights Act 2025, meaning most (if not all) employment contracts written prior to April 2026 are now out of date.

In addition to our experienced payroll team, our clients also have access to the Croner-I HR & Legal support team at no additional charge. They are on hand to discuss annual leave, holiday pay, or any other HR related matter that you may be struggling with. If you are one of our clients, you can contact your client manager for an introduction. If you’re not yet our client, feel free to contact us to see how we can help.

Alternatively, email info@goringe.email.