We work for a cleaning company, doing ten hours a week. We only get 20 days’ holiday a year, and we’re told to take the rest as public holidays. We think this is wrong, because they’re not holidays we choose ourselves; we think we should get 28 days’ holiday a year like everybody else.
I’m afraid not everybody does get 28 days’ holiday on top of public holidays. Your situation is much more common, although if you work ten hours a week you should get a minimum of 56 hours’ paid leave a year. The law which brought in an entitlement to paid annual holiday states that this can include public holidays. The annual paid holiday entitlement is currently 5.6 weeks to include the eight public holidays. When you take your holidays depends on what is written in your employment contract.