Part-time workers' rights
A part-time employee or worker is someone who works fewer hours than a full-time employee or worker in the same organisation. There's no set number of hours that counts as full or part-time work.
Protection against less favourable treatment
By law, part-time employees and workers are protected from being treated less favourably than a full-time 'comparator'. The law is the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000.
This means they should not be any worse off than a full-time comparator for:
- pay and leave – including for holiday, sickness absence, maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
- pension opportunities and benefits
- training and career development
- promotions, career breaks and job transfers
- redundancy selection and pay
Benefits such as pay and leave are given pro rata for part-time employees and workers. Pro rata means in proportion to hours worked. For example, someone who works full time gets paid £28,000 a year. Someone working in the same role for half the hours should get paid £14,000.
What a comparator is
A comparator is someone who works full time for the same employer and is on the same type of contract as the part-time employee or worker.
The comparator must do the same or broadly similar work as the part-time employee or worker. This means taking into account whether they:
- have a similar level of qualification, skills and experience
- are based at the same organisation, or at a different one if there’s no comparator at the same one
Part-time workers and indirect sex discrimination
Sometimes more than one area of law can affect a part-time employee or worker.
Treating a part-time worker less favourably than a full-time worker could be indirect sex discrimination. This is because generally, women are more likely to work part time than men.
Indirect sex discrimination is when a working practice, policy or rule applies to everyone but puts one person or group at a disadvantage because of their sex.
Find out more about indirect discrimination
Overtime pay
Some employers choose to offer pay to employees for working more hours than the employment contract says. This is usually called overtime pay.
Part-time employees and workers are not entitled by law to get overtime pay until they've worked more than the normal hours of a full-time worker. Your organisation might have a different policy about overtime, so you should check the contract.