Guide to leaves in Poland – part-time workers Part 6
Holiday leave is one of the rights granted to every person employed under a contract of employment. In case of people working on a part-time basis, the rules regarding leaves might give rise to reservations – both in case of a new employee as well as in changes of the work-time basis of an old worker.
How to correctly calculate the duration of leave for part-time workers?
General rules of holiday leave
First of all, the determination of duration of the leave is, of course, based on general rules. According to the Polish Labor Code, every employee, regardless of their work-time basis, has the right to paid holiday leave.
The duration of annual leave of a person working as part of a full-time basis depends on years of service and amounts to (pursuant to Art. 154. § 1):
– 20 days (160h) for employees with less than 10 years of service;
– 26 days (208h) for employees with at least 10 years of service.
Duration of leave of a parti-time worker
Pursuant to Art. 154 § 2, the duration of leave of a person employed on a part-time basis is determined proportionately to the work-time basis of such employee, using the duration of leave specified in §1 as the basis; an incomplete day is rounded up to a full day.
Day of leave – how many hours?
In case of part-time workers, we need to distinguish determination of the duration of the leave from settlement of the leave.
When determining the duration of the leave that a person is entitled to, we assume that a whole working day equals to 8 hours.
Along with the reduction of the work-time basis, we also reduce the limit – in case of a contract for ½ of full-time equivalent, the yearly limit of leave is:
– 20 days – 20*1/2= 10 days (80h) for employees with less than 10 years of service;
– 26 days – 26*1/2= 13 days (104h) for employees with less than 10 years of service.
Leave is granted in days but settled in hours. At this stage, one day equals to the number of hours planned in the employee’s schedule.
E.g. An employee with less than 10 years of service and employed for ½ of the full-time equivalent will work for 4 hours every day. His 1 day of leave will correspond to 4h from the pool of 80 granted on a year basis.
Another employee with the same number of years of service and working ½ of the full-time equivalent took 2 days of leave. According to their work schedule, the first day of leave lasted for 8 h and the second for 4 h – consequently, 12 h will be deducted from the pool of 80 h.
Change of the work-time basis during the year
The Polish Labor Code provides no explanation as to a situation in which the work-time basis changes during the year. The matter seems simple when the change occurs on the first day of the calendar month. All one needs to do is calculate it proportionately: the duration of leave for the x work-time basis and the y work-time basis out of 12 months.
When the work-time basis changes during the calendar year, the duration of the leave is calculated based on the number of hours in one day of work.
Example:
The employee works 3/8 of the full-time equivalent from 01.03.2024 to 31.05.2024. They have 9 years of service. From 01.06.2024, he has been working 6/8 of the full-time equivalent under a contract of employment for indefinite period.
The employee has less than 10 years of service so their annual limit of leave is 20 days.
The available duration of leave at the current employer:
- From March till May:
Duration granted for the whole calendar year – 3/8 of full-time equivalent: 20 days * 3/8 =7.5 day (rounded up to 8. One day is considered as 8 h)
Then, we determine the number of 8h days the employee is entitled to in the period in question:
8 days / 12 months * 3 months = 2 days (16h) Assuming that the employee works 3h a day, he or she can use a leave of 5 full working days in the said period and will have 1h left
- From June:
Duration granted for the whole calendar year – 6/8 of full-time equivalent: 20 days * 6/8 = 15 days (expressed as 8h/day)
15 days / 12 months * 7 months = 8.75 day (after rounding up 9 days of 8h each).
Let us assume that the employee already used 5 days of their leave (15h). If they now work 6 hours a day, they will be able to use 12 full working days of leave (72h) and still have 1h left.
The employee in our example plans to use the leave in July. He has not used any of their leave yet. How many days of leave are they entitled to?
We know that they have 2 days (16h) from the period of March to May + 9 days (72h) determined for the new work-time basis. This gives a total of 11 days (88h).
Assuming that every day of work in July is 6h, the employee can use 14 full days (84h from the pool) and still have an equivalent of 2/3 of a working day (4h)
Change of the work-time basis during the month
In the case of a change of the work-time basis during the month, there are various procedures that may be applied.
The employer may equally assume the work-time basis in which the employee worked for the majority of days in the month in which the change occurred or use the employee’s work-time basis that existed on the first day of the month in which the work-time basis was changed. The Polish Labor Code does not provide a solution for such situations.
The decision on the method of calculation of the leave limit in such a situation is made by the employer. One also needs to remember that the solution most favorable for the employee will be the best option.
Author: Adriana Grzegrzółka, Junior HR and Payroll Specialist at the MDDP Outsourcing office in Warsaw
Sources:
