Holiday entitlement
A question that comes up regularly is “how many holidays am I entitled to?”
The minimum holiday entitlement if you work 5 days a week is 28 days (5.6 weeks). An employer can give more than this if they choose, but they cannot give less. Your holiday entitlement will be stated in your contract of employment.
If you work part-time, there is an easy calculation to use to find out how many holidays you are entitled to. If you work 2 days a week you need to multiply this by 5.6 (weeks) and this will give you your entitlement.
For example:
2 x 5.6 = 11.2 days holiday
Or if you work 3 days a week...
3 x 5.6 = 16.8 days holiday
If you work 6 days a week however, the minimum entitlement does not go up and is set at 5.6 weeks – 28days.
If by the nature of your business you do not work on bank holidays, these will come out of your holiday entitlement for the year. There are eight bank and public holidays in England and Wales, nine in Scotland and ten in Northern Ireland.
If you work casual or irregular hours, working out your holiday entitlement is a little different. You need to accrue your holidays and it is worked out in hours. To find out how many holidays you are entitled to you need to add up how many hours you have worked and multiply this by 12.07%.
For example:
50 (hours worked) x 12.07% = 6.035 = 6.04 = 6 hours and 4 minutes holidays due.