How is Leave Calculated for Part-Timers with Variable Hours?
A full-time employee working 40 hours per week would have 2080 basic hours worked in a year
(40 Hours x 52 Weeks = 2080 Hours)
In 2026, full-time employees would be entitled to 192 hours of vacation leave + Public Holidays falling on their off days, totalling 216 hours of leave.
Excluding the Public Holidays, Buddy performs a reverse calculation of 2080 hours - 192 vacation hours = 1888 working hours.
For part-timers, the leave entitlement would instead be calculated pro-rata, using the following equation:
basic hours in year ÷ 1888 hours x 192 hours
As you insert the hours worked each month, the basic hours will continue to increase. Let’s take an example of an employee who worked 132 hours in January. Their leave entitlement as at the end of January would be:
132 basic hours ÷ 1888 hours * 192 = 13.42 hours
Then, in February, if they worked 74 hours, this would be a total of 206 hours worked (132 + 74), so by the end of February, their entitlement would be:
206 basic hours ÷ 1888 hours * 192 = 20.95 hours
Do note that the basic hours should not include overtime worked nor vacation, but they would include any other paid leave, such as sick leave.
What's the Accrual Rate
In certain places, you may see that Buddy shows an Accrual Rate. This is the same calculation as above but simplified.
Instead of 192 hours for 1,888 hours, the accrual rate will be displayed as 24 days per 236 days (260 annual days - 24 vacation).
This comes to an accrual of 0.1016949153 hour of vacation accrued per non-vacation worked hour.
Why does Buddy use Base 1,888 Hours?
In legislation, vacation hours generated leave entitlement. Maltese businesses run two main risks with classic methodologies of leave:
- Vacation taken at end of year (e.g. Christmas Holidays), generates more entitlement.
- Many part-time employees are paid for their leave without making use of this.
This creates a compliance issue as these payments do not generate entitlement, unlike the full-time counterparts whose entitlement is accrued on the full days of employment.
Based on this, we have adapted the reverse calculation. This ensures that the proportion of cyclical, vacation entitlement is attributed directly within the non-vacation hours.
Accrual Method
The above method is called the Embedded method.
In the Leave Settings, companies can choose to use the Accruing method, which accrues leave for basic hours + leave taken, proportionate to 2080 hours.
Note: Queries regarding the entitlement for the Accruing methodology are are outside of the scope of service; this is especially due to each leave application further changing the entitlement. The recommended methodology is the Embedded system, due to the points highlighted earlier.