How To Deal With Part Time Workers

With an increasing number of businesses using part-time workers to deliver their services, it is important for employers to understand the approach that should be taken to ensure that the rules governing this type of employment are complied with.

Gillian Reid, Head of Employment at Ware & kay in York, Wetherby & Malton explains the key provisions you need to be aware of.

When will someone be classed as a part-time worker?

There is no legal definition of a part-time worker, but in broad terms anyone who works less than the usual hours worked by a full-time employee, based on the employer's workplace customs and practices, will be classed as a part-timer.

What rights do part-time workers have?

Part-time workers are protected by the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, which provide a basic right for those who work part-time not to be treated any less favourably than comparable full-time workers or to suffer a detriment as a result of their status, except where this can be objectively justified.

This means that, compared to a full-time comparator, any part-timer you employ is generally entitled to receive the same:

• basic hourly rate of pay;
• enhanced or special rates of pay, e.g. shift allowances or bonus pay;
• entitlement to contractual sick pay;
• rights to access any company pension scheme that you operate;
• rights to access training and promotion opportunities; and
• maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave rights.

You must ensure that the pay and benefits given to a part-time worker are no less favourable than those given to someone doing the same job on a full-time basis, although you are entitled to apportion the pay and benefits provided pro-rata.

How to deal with annual leave

Calculating the annual leave entitlement of a part-time worker can be a challenge, particularly when it comes to factoring in bank holiday allowance. The statutory minimum holiday allowance for a full-time worker is 28 days (5.6 weeks), which may be inclusive of bank holidays if you wish.

A week's leave is taken to involve a worker being away from work for a week. So, a week's leave for a full-time worker will be 5 days and for a part-time worker, who works 2 days a week, it will be 2 days.

Part-time workers and employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks of their normal working week.

For part-timers who work different hours from one week to another or who are employed on shift patters the calculations are more complex.

How to deal with overtime and part-time workers with more than one

job

If you have part-time staff working overtime, you need to include a clause in their contract stating that overtime rates will only be payable once a set number of hours a week have been completed; any hours under this will be paid at their usual hourly rate.

If you have part-time employees who also work for someone else, you need to take care to ensure they are not breaching the Working Time Regulations 1998.

How to deal with redundancy

If a redundancy situation arises, you must not decide to terminate the contracts of part-time employees first. Instead, you should score part-time and full-time employees on the same basis, applying no penalties for being a part-timer, and base your decision on that.

Published: July 2017

Contact us:

For a confidential discussion about how to deal with part-time workers, or any other employment law matter, please contact Gillian Reid on 01904 716050 or email Gillian.Reid@warekay.co.uk