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Working Part Time

Written by: Chris McQuillan
Published on: 5 Dec 2017

Part Time Working

Working part time can have several benefits for both employees and employers. Part time workers are vital to the UK economy, especially for those roles where skills are hard to find. So what makes a job part time and should workers be treated differently to their full time counterparts?

 

Workers Rights

Firstly, there isn't set number of hours that classifies a job as part time, instead we have to consider that a full time worker typically works a minimum of 35 hours per week.  Arguably therefore, fewer hours than this would make the role part time.

Having established what could classify a job to be part time, does it make any difference to a part time workers rights?

A part time worker should get the same treatment for rates of pay, pensions, holidays, training, redundancy and career break opportunities.

An area often queried is that of overtime. For example, if a person normally works 16 hours per week, should they qualify for enhanced overtime payments for hours worked over 16 hours?

In this instance, an employer would be expected to treat the part time worker exactly as they would treat it's full time workers.  If enhanced pay rates are given to full time workers after 35 hours have been worked, then this should apply equally to the person normally working 16 hours per week.

 

Why Treat Part Time Workers Differently?

The bottom line is that Part Time workers should be treated the same as their full time colleagues.  The question for employers is why would you want to treat such a valuable part of your workforce differently anyway?

Treating people equally isn't just a legal requirement, it's actually great for business too.

People work part time for a variety of reasons and perhaps one of the most common reasons for working part time is due to a parent returning to work with family commitments.  These people are often highly skilled and have work experience which will only benefit the business. The same can be said about other segments of the community.

 

Part Time Jobs

It's difficult to think of a job sector that would not benefit from part time workers.  Hiredonline typically advertises part time jobs in all of the job sectors we cover.

You can find a complete list of our current part time jobs here