Employing part-time workers

Part-time employees' rights

By law you must treat your part-time workers as favourably as comparable full-time workers. A comparable full-time worker must work for the same employer and be doing similar work under the same type of contract.

This means that part-time workers must enjoy pro-rata terms and conditions including equal:

• rates of pay
• rates of overtime pay - once part-timers have worked more than the normal full-time hours
• entitlement to company pension schemes and benefits
• access to training and career development
• holiday entitlement
• rights to career breaks
• contractual sick pay, contractual maternity and parental leave and pay rights as offered to full-time staff
• treatment when selecting candidates for promotion, and for redundancy

You can only justify treating part-time workers less favourably if you can prove it is necessary. For example, the disproportionate cost of letting a part-time worker join a health insurance scheme may justify not letting them join.

Part-time workers have the same rights and benefits - in proportion to the hours they work - as comparable full-time staff, unless you can justify the difference on objective grounds. Part-time workers who believe they are not treated equally can ask you for a written statement of reasons for this. You have 21 days in which to respond.

Part-time workers who still believe they are being treated unfavourably, and don't believe you have objectively justified this, can make a complaint to an Employment Tribunal. An Employment Tribunal can make you pay compensation if they find in the part-timer's favour.

Read about the law and best practice for employing part-time workers on the DTI website.

 Print This Page

Source - Business Link; Crown Copyright.