If you are unsure about the rights of a part-time worker in your business, give the Chamber HR  Advice Service a call on 01 855 50 50, where one of our advisors will be happy to answer your queries and tell you everything you need to know.

There are many misconceptions about part time employees.  However, part time employees have the same statutory rights as their full time equivalent.  Any contractual rights should, wherever possible, be the same for part time employees as for full time employees.  If there is a legitimate reason for different treatment then this would have to be objectively justified and, overall, the contractual terms should be no less favourable.
 
Part time employees have the same holiday entitlements as full time employees, although these will be applied on a pro-rata basis.  There are also the same rights to bonuses, access to the pension scheme, company cars, sick pay and redundancy pay.  Any length of service entitlement is not adjusted for part time workers so if a full time employee would qualify for company sick pay after 1 year then a part time employee would also only require 1 year of qualifying service.
 
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is in redundancy situations where they reduce the number of roles and will not consider retaining part time employees as they only have full time roles left.  Companies cannot select for redundancy on the basis of part time status.  A company would need to discuss with the part time employee if they would be willing to work full time and see if there was anyone else willing to work on a part time basis to see if the number of full time equivalents can re reached.
 
Contracts need to be clear in respect of overtime payments.  They should set out the number of hours that an employee would have to work in a week before they can get any increased overtime rate.  This number of hours is not subject to a pro-rata for part time employees so if employees need to work over 40 hours a week to obtain an increased overtime rate then that number of hours applies equally to full and part time staff.
 
Employers cannot insist that part time employees book all their appointments outside of working time although this can be requested as much as possible as with full time employees.  Employers should refrain from reorganising rotas to make ante-natal appointments fall on non-work days otherwise they run the risk of a claim of discrimination for reasons relating to pregnancy.
 
There is no statutory right to work part time.  Employees may request part time work however, there is no obligation on an employer to agree to the request although best practice would be to consider any such request reasonably.  Part time work can also be considered as a potential reasonable adjustment for a disabled employee where appropriate.

« Back

» Dispelling Part Time Myths

Printer version

Email a colleague