If employer allows full-time staff to reduce their working week to, for example, 30 hours per week, how is holiday entitlement calculated, especially if the employee works Monday to Thursday? And what about public holiday entitlement?

Part-time employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ statutory leave in the same way as any other worker and although the Working Time Regulations do not define what is meant by a week’s leave, the established view is that this involves the worker being away from work for a week. For example, if a worker does a 5-day week, he or she is entitled to 28 days' leave; if he or she does a 4-day week, the entitlement is 22.4 days' leave.

A helpful tool to calculate an employee's statutory annual leave entitlement (on the basis of hours and/or days) is available on the Department for Employment and Learning website, which contains a helpful "Ready Reckoner" and a "Business Link":