Part-Time Working

Part time worker rights

Part-Time Workers Directive, gives part-time workers the right to receive the same access to benefits and entitlements as full-time workers.

This means that no part-time worker should be treated less favourably in respect of any term and condition of employment than a comparable full-time worker, unless less favourable treatment can be justified on objective grounds.

The right for parents and carers to request a reduction in hours of work in order to fulfil their caring responsibilities also forms part of the Groups flexible working procedure.

Manager must take particular care to ensure that:

• all part-time staff receive the same access to training and promotion as full-timers;
• all part-timers receive a pro rata entitlement to leave including bank holidays;
• requests from full-timers (particularly those returning from maternity leave) to work part-time are given careful consideration, and permission is not unreasonably withheld; and
• requests to work part-time which are submitted under the terms of the Group’s flexible working procedure.

Application of the regulations

The right not to be treated less favourably than a comparable full-time worker applies to rates of pay, including overtime for hours worked above normal full-time hours, contractual sick pay and maternity pay, access to occupational pensions or other benefits, training, promotion and leave arrangements.

Most of these provisions are covered by the Group’s arrangements. However, divisions are responsible for ensuring that local arrangements in the following areas are compliant with the Regulations:

Access to training

Part-time workers should be eligible for training on the same basis as full-time staff.

Where possible courses should be arranged so the part-time workers can attend within their normal working hours. Where this is not possible, and staff either wish to or are required to attend, they should either be paid (at a basic hourly rate) or given time off in lieu to enable them to attend.

Promotion

Previous or current part-time status must not be considered a barrier to promotion to a more senior post and where a part-time worker wishes to apply for a full-time position on a part-time basis this must be given serious consideration.

Annual leave, holiday, maternity leave and parental leave, fixed holidays and bank holidays

Part-time staff should receive the same leave entitlement, pro rata, as full-time workers.

It is important to ensure that part-timers receive their pro rata entitlement to paid bank holidays and any site fixed days of closure. This is particularly important where a part-timer who does not normally work on Mondays may not enjoy a full entitlement. Such staff should be compensated by an adjustment to their personal leave entitlement. Equally the personal leave allowance of part-time staff, who, because they always work on Mondays, may benefit disproportionately from bank holidays, will need to be adjusted.

Failure to comply with the Regulations

Diviisons and Managers should be aware that a part-time worker who considers that he or she has received less favourable treatment could request a written statement from the employer, which must give details of the reasons for the treatment.

The employer must respond within 21 working days. Such statements are admissible as evidence in any proceedings, e.g. at an employment tribunal. Remedies for unfavourable treatment are the same as those applied to sex, race and disability discrimination cases, so that there is no upper limit for compensation.

It is vital that you contact your HR Team if any such issue is raised.

Requests to increase or decrease hours

Employees are required to put the request in writing to the manager for consideration.

The Employee must state the hours and days they wish to work and from what day they would like the request to begin form.

The Regulations recommend that employers should give serious consideration to requests to change to part-time working and consequently these requests should not be unreasonably refused, whether or not they are made under the terms of the Group’s flexible working procedure.

It’s common for such requests when a member of staff returns from maternity leave.

Refusal to accommodate requests in these circumstances can have implications in relation to sex discrimination.

Therefore where Business Unit feel they may not be able to accommodate such requests, advice should be sought from their HR Business Partner.

Note: Employment tribunals are increasingly applying strict tests of justifiability when employers refuse requests from employees to work part-time.

Where a member of staff works on a part-time basis and works the same number of hours per day from Monday to Friday, then the annual leave entitlement will be the same as that for a member of full-time staff.

The only difference, of course, is that the payment for a “day” of annual leave for the part-time worker will be different from the payment for a day’s leave received by the full-time staff member.

The case is not so simple for a member of staff who works on a part-time basis where the number of hours are not the same each working day or they do not work every working day of the week.

The following step-by-step guide provides a calculation based on hours worked.

These calculations need to be done annually to take account of the actual days when bank holidays and fixed closure days fall.

This guide uses the example of an employee working for a full day (7.3 hours) on both Wednesdays and Thursdays and for a part day (4.3 hours) on Fridays, and they do not work on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Step one: identify the equivalent full-time total leave entitlement

The leave allowance for a full-time employee, inclusive of personal leave, any fixed closure days and the eight annual bank holidays, is
24 days or 192 hours (24 x 8 hours a day)

Step two: calculate the proportion of full-time hours to be worked by the part-timer

Hours of work for the employee are specified in hours of work.

In this example full-time employee working week of 40 hours and our part-timer works a total of 18.9 hours per week, which is 51.78% of the full-time hours.

Step three: calculate a pro rata leave entitlement

A part-time employee is entitled to a leave allowance in the same proportion to that of a full-timer as his or her working hours. In our example the full-time leave allowance is 277.4 hours. The part-timer works 51.78% of full time hours and is therefore entitled to a leave allowance equalling 51.78% of 277.4 hours. This works out at 143.64 hours of leave inclusive of personal leave, any fixed closure days, and bank holidays.

Step four: calculate the personal leave entitlement

To calculate the employee’s personal leave entitlement for the year, deduct the appropriate number of hours for any fixed closure days and bank holidays which fall during that particular year on days when they would otherwise have been due to work. In our example, these days are: four full days (7.3 hours x 4), and 2 part-days (4.3 x 2), making a total of 37.8 hours. Deducting this from the total of 143.64 gives 105.84 hours of personal leave entitlement (this figure may be rounded to the nearest half hour, eg 106 hours).

Step five: keeping the leave record
Establish a leave record indicating a total allowance of 143.64 hours. Deduct all hours of leave as they are taken. So if the part-timer in our example takes a week’s personal leave, you deduct 18.9 hours.

If they take a day’s leave (ie does not work on a day when they would otherwise have been due to work), whether this is a bank holiday, fixed day of closure or personal leave, you deduct 7.3 hours for a day they work full-time hours and 4.3 hours for their part-day. No deduction should be made for bank holidays or fixed closure days which fall on days when the part-timer would not have been due to work.

In other cases where it is not possible to follow this guide for a particular working pattern, please seek assistance from HR Team.