Paid holiday entitlement

A. No. You are entitled to paid holiday as you are likely to be a worker or employee. Only the genuinely self-employed are not entitled to paid holiday.

Paid holiday entitlement is built up and starts from when you begin your job and usually needs to be taken before the end of your employer’s holiday year. Your employer may allow you to carry over some holiday which will be set out in your employment contract.

The current legal entitlement for paid holiday is 5.6 weeks per holiday year for a full time worker. In your case, this will be reduced and apportioned because you work part-time hours.

 Here is a link to the government holiday entitlement calculator: www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

This calculator can also be used to calculate your part-time holiday entitlement.

You will also need to give your employer notice that you want to take paid holiday. As a general rule, you should give twice the amount of notice as required holiday, so for example, two weeks’ notice for one weeks’ holiday, unless your employment contract has different notice requirements.