HSE holiday entitlement

Z

Zeus2020

Registered User
Messages
60
hi hope somebody can help i have worked in the hse as a nurse since 96 as temporary and permanent since 2002
I have Alway taken 7 weeks annual leave but now we have gone online with our entitlements, and I see that I am only granted 127 hours
before this it was always done at ward level with pen and paper with mangers signing off on it
I just want to know where I legally stand now before I phone HR and try to sort it out or could I be opening a hornet's nest and owing loads of time back
I have been working 23 hours for the last 3 years which is made up of any two-day 12-hour shifts per week
 
Zeus2020 said:
I have Alway taken 7 weeks annual leave
Click to expand...
Where did that come from? Was it in your contract? I am surprised at that figure. According to the PNA website the entitlement of a full time staff nurse with at least 10 years service is 27 days. Promoted grades with the same service get 28 days. For part-time I imagine it should be proportional to the hours worked.

Zeus2020 said:
I see that I am only granted 127 hours
Click to expand...
Based on a 37.5 hour week (7.5 hour day) that equates to 16.9 days.

Zeus2020 said:
I have been working 23 hours for the last 3 years which is made up of any two-day 12-hour shifts per week
Click to expand...

Based on a 37.5 hr week, that 23 hours is 61% of full time. So if you are been offered 16.9 days leave this corresponds to about 27.75 days annual leave on a full time basis. Rounding this suggests you annual leave is being calculated by reference to either 27 or 28 days for a full time equivalent - which is standard acccording to the PNA website.

But maybe there is something different in your contract or your position is in some way anomalous? And, of course, leave relating to public holidays entitlements would have to be factored in.
 
More info required!

Assuming that your leave year is the calendar year, what was your annual leave position on 01 Jan 2022?

Had you carried any leave forward or, as far as you were concerned, were you in a situation where you had taken all of your leave entitlements for 2021, and hadn't anticipated any annual leave for this year, so the slate was clear?

Have you taken any annual leave this calendar year?
 
Zeus2020 said:
I just want to know where I legally stand now before I phone HR and try to sort it out or could I be opening a hornet's nest and owing loads of time back
Click to expand...

This may be a very real risk if you’re used to getting 7 weeks leave for a 23 hour week.

You should have been given a contract of employment which should be specific about your leave entitlement and how it’s calculated. What does yours say?
 
Are you in a union?
If so they should be The first port of call.

The "127 hours" figure is probably based on a pro rata amount based on a notional full time staff member and your "23" hours.

You say that you changed to the "23" hour week 3 years ago.

How long have you been getting 7 weeks holidays?

When you took a "week" holidays now may hours were paid as per your payslip?


These details may help people throw light on your situation.

It's a remote possibility that the pen and paper system worked to your benefit depending on what return was made.
 
Under your current working arrangements, you only need 2 days leave to have a week off. So, for the last 3 years, if you had 16 days leave (based on early riser's calculation), that got you 8 weeks off.
Your paper records may just have counted "days", whereas the online system counts hours in terms of leave.
Maybe have an informal chat with your union rep before approaching HR - there must be others in a similar situation
 
Your annual leave entitlement is expressed in hours rather than days.

You need 23 hours leave to have a week off (perhaps less for a week with a bank holiday depending on your work pattern).

With 127 hours, this equates to approximately 5.5 weeks so definitely less than you might have been accustomed to.

The minimum annual statutory entitlement for someone working 23 hours a week is 96 hours (assuming you’re working a full year)
 
thanks for all your replies
must look at my contract but i think it says 28 days but everything is broken down into hours now
think i go through union first to sort and see what they say
 
Sounds like a mistake on their side when switching to the new system. 7 weeks annual leave is normal, although it varies slightly depending on years experience.

This information is a year old so figures will have changed slightly due to the reduced working week brought in this year. It's also based on full time hours.

The annual leave entitlement for 10+ Years experience is 27 days + 10 bank holidays.
A day/bank holiday = 7.5 hours.
Total annual leave for full time staff is 277.5 hours which equals 23 twelve hour days or 7.1 weeks.

Your hourly entitlement will be different due to your reduced working week but should still work out at just over 7 weeks.
 
Last edited:
Ah I think I see what's happened. Probably the new system doesn't add the bank holidays to annual leave entitlement until they have passed? There's still 5 bank holidays to go before the end of March when our annual leave year ends. 5 x 7.5 hours = 37.5 hours which would bring you up to 164.5 hours or 7.1 weeks annual leave.

We haven't switched to the new system where I work yet so I haven't viewed my own entitlement to verify my theory but I think this is the likely explanation.
 
Ciara8x said:
There's still 5 bank holidays to go before the end of March when our annual leave year ends. 5 x 7.5 hours = 37.5 hours which would bring you up to 164.5 hours or 7.1 weeks annual leave.
Click to expand...
Just a query. Does a person on reduced working hours get leave for all public holidays? Or is it proportionate to their work pattern?
 
Everyone gets leave for all public holidays as far as I know. Most ward managers will try to balance it so that everyone works for half of them anyway.
 
Early Riser said:
Just a query. Does a person on reduced working hours get leave for all public holidays? Or is it proportionate to their work pattern?
Click to expand...
It's based on hours worked.

I had a staff member doing 30 hours per week, she did not work Monday when most of them occur. So she got 6 hours added her leave which was marked a public holiday leave. If the PH fell on a Tues etc she was off like the rest of us.
 
Based on 23 hours per week and 27 days annual leave.

23 /5 4.6 hours.

4.6 X 27 is 124.2 hrs AL
4.6 X 10 is 46 hrs PH

Total 170.2

170. 2 / 23 = 7.4 weeks
 
So it looks like Zeus's 127 hours AL is correct (based on 28 days AL) but it doesn't include PHs, which may be recorded (or taken) separately?
 
Early Riser said:
So it looks like Zeus's 127 hours AL is correct (based on 28 days AL) but it doesn't include PHs, which may be recorded (or taken) separately?
Click to expand...
PH should be recorded separately but there was a old practice of combining AL and PH for staff on 7 day rotas.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register