Business closed for 2 weeks at Xmas - Pay entitlement.

[Le Chat]

Hi. I have recently started work in an Estate Agency part time 21 hrs. I have just found out that they are closed for 2 weeks over xmas. I will therefore miss out (as it works out) on 21 hours work. None of the days I work are bank holidays this year. Do I still get paid? They close every year for 2 weeks at xmas. Thought I'd ask here first as I am actually off after having an operation at the moment.

[Hawkwalk]

if this is classed as part of your annual leave then you should get paid for this. You are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid leave (this will be pro rata in your case as you are part time) but you can be told by your employer when this must be taken. Companies that close over Christmas usually class this as part of your paid holiday entitlement.

[Buenchico]

Some people have contracts which state that they're only employed for specific periods of the year. (e.g. it's not unusual for school support staff, such as kitchen assistants, to have 'term time only' contracts). If so, they don't get paid outside of their employed periods (except that they'll still be entitled to a certain amount of paid holiday, calculated pro rata to a full year's employment).

However I'll assume that you've got a 'normal' contract, so that you're regarded as 'employed' throughout the whole year. If so, your statutory (paid) holiday entitlement is 5.6 times the number of days you work each week. (If you work a different number of hours each day the calculation will be be based upon hours instead of days. i.e. your holiday entitlement, measured in hours, will be 5.6 times times 21 hours = 117.6 hours).

Your employer is free to determine when your paid holidays should be (subject only to providing you with adequate notice of those dates). When a business is closed for any period (such as over Christmas), any days which an employee would normally work become 'enforced holidays'. i.e. the employee should be paid as normal but will lose those days from their remaining holiday entitlement.

Some employers provide more than the statutory minimum holiday allowance. If so, they are free (subject to any individual contractual arrangements) to make their own rules regarding holidays as long as they ensure that the employee's basic rights (referred to in the preceding paragraph) are maintained, and that part-timers aren't treated less (or more) favourably than full-timers.

Incidentally, public holidays have no special significance in employment law. If you normally worked on a Friday your employer could insist that you turned up for work on Christmas Day, at normal pay rates, and discipline you if you failed to do so.

Chris

[Le Chat]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply and for clearing this up for me. I couldn't find that exact information on any of the sites I looked at, including Business Link. Thanks again!