Part time workers – protection against less favourable treatment

Part time workers have the right to equal pay, including expenses, bonuses, performance-related pay, and other benefits. This also includes contractual sick leave and pay and statutory entitlements.

Part time workers should be paid the same hourly rate as full time workers doing the same work. If you are salaried, your pay should be pro rata according the number of hours you work. For instance, if you work 4 days a week and full time is 5 days a week, you should receive 4/5th of a full time salary, or 0.8.

Part time workers are entitled to the same holidays as full time worker calculated on a pro rata basis. Employers may not ’round down’ holiday entitlement.

For instance, if you work 4 days a week and full time is 5 days a week, you should receive 4/5ths of the annual leave entitlement that a full time worker receives. If your employer offers the statutory 5.6 weeks (28 days) of paid holiday, you should receive 4/5th of that entitlement (or 0.8). This means you would be entitled to 22.4 days of annual leave.

Your employer must allow you to take 0.4 of a day of annual leave, and cannot round down to 22 days. For instance, if you normally work 8 hours per day, your employer should allow you to take 22 days and 3.2 hours of annual leave.

You can use the government’s holiday entitlement calculator to calculate your annual leave entitlement.

Normally, bank holidays will either be counted as additional holidays by your employer (you may or may not be paid for them), or deducted from yoru annual leave allowance (so you take the bank holiday as paid holiday).

If full time staff get time off for bank holidays, part time workers who work fixed days each week should be given additional time off where their working pattern does not coincide with bank holidays. For instance, many bank holidays fall either on a Monday. If you don’t work Mondays, your employer should give you additional time off for the bank holiday.

However, if full time staff do not get time off for bank holidays (it is deducted from their annual leave), and work shuts for a bank holiday on a day that you normally work, you will have to use your annual leave for the time off.

For instance, you work one day a week on Monday and you’re entitled to 5.6 days of annual leave a year pro rata. There are 4 bank holidays that fall on a Monday each year, and your work shuts on these days. This means you will need to use 4 days of annual leave, leaving you with only 1.6 days to take a time of your choice. If you work Tuesdays, and there are no bank holidays on Tuesdays, you would have 5.6 days of annual leave to take at a time of your choice.

It is important to keep bank holidays and annual leave in mind when you are negotiating your working pattern with your employer – and check your employment contract / employer leave policy to know how bank holidays will be treated.

Part time workers have the right to join a pension scheme that is provided by the employer and that is open to full time workers, and provide contributions on a pro rata basis reflecting the hours that you work.

Part time workers are entitled to the same rights to statutory maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay. If an employer provides more than the statutory entitlements, they must be calculated on a pro rata basis.

As a part time worker, you are entitled to the same overtime threshold as full time workers (although not necessarily pro rata). If you exceed the threshold for normal full time hours, you may be entitled to overtime. You should check your employment contract for details on overtime thresholds and rates.

If you are moving from a full time contract to part time hours, you are protected under the Part Time Workers Regulations from less favourable treatment. 

You have a right not to be treated less favourably in the terms of your contract and you should receive no less than the pro-rata the pay you would get as a full time worker.  If your pay cut is more than the pro-rata pay that you would get as a full time worker, then your employer may be treating you less favourably.

For instance, you work full time (5 days per week) and receive £30,000 per year. You request flexible working, and your employer offers to reduce your hours to 3 days per week. You should receive at least 3/5ths or 0.6 of the full time pay for the role, which should be £18,000.

Remember that you should compare your pay to another worker employed by the same employer under the same type of contract and engaged in broadly similar work (similar qualifications, skills and experience) who is working full time. You can also compare your rate of pay with your rate of pay when working full time if you are keeping the same role and just reducing hours. If you are taking a less junior or less well paid role, then you must compare yourself with the lower salary.

If you use your right to request flexible working after maternity leave, that is to change only your hours, it should not result in a change to the other terms and conditions of your contract. 

However, many employers will refuse a flexible working request and offer alternative jobs on a part time basis to women returning from maternity leave. 

If  you worked full time before your maternity leave and you are returning either to the same job but part time, or a job at the same level but on a part time basis, you may be able to use the Part Time Workers Regulations to argue that you should have no less favourable terms than before.

Under Part Time Worker Regulation 4, a previously full time worker can compare their new terms and conditions with those that they enjoyed immediately before the change. This regulation allows women to compare their part time roles with their previous full time role and argue that they should not be treated less favourably because of their part time status. Any standard change, for instance a pay increase, that have occurred during the period of their absence, must be also applied on your return on a pro-rata basis.  

You should not be selected for redundancy (or otherwise be treated less favourably) just because you work part-time, unless your employer can justify this on objective grounds. The justification needs to have a legitimate objective and be necessary and proportionate.

If your employer goes through redundancy, they must put in the selection pool all affected employees. That includes all employees doing the same job – whether or not part-time or full time. The reason for selecting you should not be because you’re working part-time. For more information, see our article on part-time workers and redundancy.

Speak to your employer in the first instance and try to resolve things informally. Try to keep communications friendly if you can. It can sometimes be more effective if you focus on solutions and the way forward, rather than the things you are unhappy about. You can say if think you are being treated unfairly because of your part time hours, and explain what you would like your employer to do about it.

Request written reasons

If informal conversations don’t resolve the problem, and you think that you are not being treated fairly, write to your employer requesting a written statement of reasons for less favourable treatment.  You must receive it within 21 days of the request – the law requires your employer to respond within this timeframe.

Raise a grievance

You can also consider raising a grievance. You can find more information in our article on Grievances.

Raising a grievance is important if you think you might later raise a claim in the Employment Tribunal because failure to follow internal resolution methods can disadvantage a claim. 

It is advisable to try and resolve things amicably, as formal processes can damage your relationship with your employer. For some legal insight into grievances and tips on how to engage with your employer before it reaches this point, see our article on Grievances do more harm than good.

Your employer should not ignore your grievance, fail to hear it within a reasonable time or reject it out of hand (as doing so could amount to a breach of your employment contract). However, your employer is not obliged to uphold your complaint.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of your grievance, you should normally be able to appeal it; the procedure will be set out in your employer’s grievance policy. If you are unhappy with the outcome of the appeal process, you can contact us for advice.

Make a claim in the Employment Tribunal

If you are not satisfied with your employer’s stated reasons, or your employer doesn’t respond to give its reasons, you can complain to an employment tribunal within three months of the change of contract.  An Employment Tribunal can make a declaration, order the employer to pay compensation, or recommend that the employer takes further action.

See our section on starting a claim for further information and beware of time limits. You must contact ACAS to start early conciliation within three months less a day of the act complained of (the less favourable treatment).

Tribunal claims can be expensive and long, and there is no guarantee of success, so this step should be considered cautiously. It is often best to try to resolve the issue with your employer. If you are considering bringing a claim, you can contact us for advice.