Does my part-time employee get the August bank holiday?

The short answer

Probably yes. Just not necessarily the day itself.

There's no automatic right for any employee, full-time or part-time, to have a specific bank holiday off. What there is, is a right to fair pro-rata holiday entitlement. And for a lot of part-time staff, the August bank holiday falling on a Monday they don't work doesn't mean they get nothing. It means you might owe them something in lieu.

If you're not sure which side of the line your employees sit on, read on. Because getting this wrong is one of the most common and most avoidable small employer mistakes.

First, how do bank holidays actually work in law?

There is no statutory right to paid bank holidays in the UK. What the law gives workers is 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave per year. What happens to bank holidays depends entirely on the contract.

Most employers handle it one of two ways.

Either the contract says something like "28 days including bank holidays," which means bank holidays eat into the 28-day pot. Or it says "20 days plus bank holidays," which means bank holidays sit on top.

Neither is wrong. But you need to know which one you're running, because it changes everything that follows.

So what does my part-timer actually get?

The rule is straightforward. Part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks as full-time workers, calculated pro-rata. The Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 makes it unlawful to treat them less favourably than a comparable full-time colleague.

So if a full-time employee working five days a week gets 28 days, someone working three days a week gets 5.6 x 3 = 16.8 days. Round up, not down. Never round down.

The bank holiday question flows from this. Here's where it gets interesting.

The Monday problem

Bank holidays in England and Wales fall disproportionately on Mondays. The August bank holiday this year is Monday 31 August. Christmas Day and Boxing Day aside, almost every bank holiday is a Monday.

If your part-timer doesn't work Mondays, they never get a bank holiday. Their full-time colleagues get eight free days a year on top of their leave. Your part-timer gets none.

That's less favourable treatment. And it's unlawful unless you do something about it.

What you do about it is give them a pro-rata bank holiday entitlement in hours, calculated against the full-time equivalent, and let them take that time from their leave pot. In practice, it means they have slightly more days to use flexibly to compensate for the bank holidays they can never take on the day.

A worked example

Sarah works Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, three days a week, seven hours a day. Full-time at your business is five days, 35 hours a week.

Full-time bank holiday entitlement: 8 days x 7 hours = 56 hours.

Sarah's pro-rata share: 56 x (21 hours ÷ 35 hours) = 33.6 hours, which rounds up to 34 hours, or just under five days.

Sarah never works Mondays so she'll never take a bank holiday on the day. But she's entitled to 34 hours of additional leave to compensate. Either that's built into her total leave calculation, or she gets it on top, depending on how your contracts are written.

If you're unsure how yours are written, that's worth checking before Monday 31st August lands.

What if the contract says nothing useful?

This happens more than it should. If your contract is vague, look at what you've actually been doing in practice. Has the part-timer always had the bank holiday off if it falls on their working day? Have you been treating it consistently? Custom and practice can become contractual over time, which is a whole separate conversation, but it's worth being aware of.

If you're genuinely not sure where you stand, this is a good moment to get it sorted properly rather than wait for someone to raise a grievance about it.

The quick checklist before 31st August

Does your part-timer work Mondays? If yes, they get the bank holiday like everyone else. Job done.

If no, check whether their contract gives them a pro-rata bank holiday entitlement or equivalent. If it does, make sure it's reflected in their leave balance. If it doesn't, or the contract is unclear, take advice before the day arrives.

And if you're not confident your annual leave calculations are right for your part-timers, irregular hours staff or anyone with a non-standard pattern, that's exactly what Annual Leave Logic is built for. It shows the working, not just the number, so you can see where your figures are coming from and whether they're right.

Last reviewed: August 2026. This article is general guidance, not legal advice.