Cribsheet: your essential guide

They grant a basic right for part-time workers not to be treated less favourably on the grounds of their part-time status than comparable full-time workers, unless such less favourable treatment can be justified objectively.

Who is covered?
The regulations apply to 'workers' and not just to 'employees'. The wider definition includes part-time workers who may not be employees, such as home workers and agency workers. The regulations state that a part-time worker is someone who is 'paid wholly or partly by reference to the time he works and, having regard to the custom and practice of the employer in relation to workers employed by the worker's employer under the same type of contract, is not identifiable as a full-timer'. A part-timer must therefore be identified by reference to the particular circumstances of each employer.

Bringing a claim
In order to establish that a part-timer is suffering less favourable treatment, he or she must draw a particular comparison with a full-time worker. It is not enough just to demonstrate treatment that is different to a full-timer. In order for such a comparison to be valid, the regulations require that the part-time worker be compared with full-time workers working for the same employer on a similar contract. This in itself may prove a difficult hurdle for many part-timers to overcome. In circumstances where they believe they are being treated less favourably than comparable full-timers, part-time workers may request a written statement of the reasons for their treatment from an employer. The employer is required to respond to this request within 21 days. Employees will then be able to present a claim for compensation to an employment tribunal if they still believe that their rights have been infringed.

Discrimination
Discrimination against part-timers at all stages of employment — recruitment, promotion, terms of employment and dismissal — is potentially unlawful. Traditionally promotion is an area where employers have favoured full-time staff over part-timers. Under the regulations however, previous or current part-time status should now not form a barrier to promotion to a post, whether the post itself is full-time or part-time.

Pay
Part-time employees must not receive a lower basic rate of pay than comparable full-time employees, unless it can be 'objectively justified', for example by a performance-related pay scheme. Similarly, the same hourly rate of overtime pay should be paid to part-timers as to comparable full-time employees. However, this only applies once they have worked more than the normal full-time hours, rather than for hours worked in excess of their normal part-time week.

Benefits
Part-time workers must also be allowed to participate in the full range of benefits available to full-timers such as profit-sharing schemes, and access to pension schemes, unless there are objective grounds for excluding them. Any benefits should be pro-rata to those received by comparable full-time workers, depending on the proportion of a week or month worked.

Training
The regulations prohibit employers from excluding part-timers from training schemes as a matter of principle. Employers should therefore take great care to ensure that part-timers get the same access to training as full-time workers.

Other employee rights
The regulations also require that part-timers must be given the same treatment in relation to maternity leave, parental leave and time off to care for dependants as their full-time colleagues, on a pro rata basis where this is appropriate. Similarly, career break schemes should be made available to part-timers in the same way, unless their exclusion is objectively justified. Additionally, with redundancy, part-timers should be treated just as favourably as full-timers. Part-time status should not be a criterion for selection for redundancy.

Conclusion
In order to avoid falling foul of the regulations, employers are advised to amend their handbooks to include a section on part-timers and the consequences of breaching the regulations. Procedures should also be revised to make it a disciplinary offence to discriminate against part-timers. Employers should also consider training to raise awareness of the rights of part-timers.