First published: April 5th 2022
Last updated: February 17th 2023
What holidays are my employees entitled to?
All employees earn holiday pay based on time worked, regardless of whether they are full-time, part-time, casual or temporary.
As an employer, you have a statutory obligation to provide paid holidays to employees under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. This law covers employees, apprentices, and those employed through an employment agency.
This article explains everything you need to know about Irish employment law on this topic and other important details regarding holiday entitlement in Ireland.
What is holiday leave?
The Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, (OWTA), sets out that employees are entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave for each leave year.
The duration of periods of annual leave is determined by the employer based on work requirements. You are entitled to schedule employee annual leave in a way that suits your business. If your business is seasonal, the OWTA does permit you to deny annual leave requests during your most busy periods.
You also need to consider the employee's need to reconcile work and family responsibilities, as well as rest and recreation opportunities.
In practice, there is usually no problem finding dates that suit both the employer and the employee.
Are staff paid while on leave?
During their statutory annual leave, employees are entitled to receive their regular salary.
Employees with varying rates of pay should receive the average of their pay over the 13 weeks before taking their leave.
Who's entitled to take holidays?
Under the OWTA, all employees are entitled to take annual leave. This applies to all employees under a:
- Contract of employment
- Contract of apprenticeship
- Public sector employees (save for the Gardaí and the Defence Forces)
- Workers employed through an employment agency
Do all employees have the same amount of holiday entitlement in Ireland?
There is a statutory minimum level of annual leave which all employees are entitled to but not all employees will have the same amount of annual leave.
Annual leave is calculated based on the amount of working time an employee completes during a leave year.
You can work out the statutory minimum paid annual leave using these calculations:
- An employee who works at least 1,365 hours in a year receives the full entitlement of four working weeks of annual leave.
- An employee who works at least 117 hours in a month receives one-third of a working week for each month in the leave year.
- For part-time employees, the most common calculation method is typically 8% of the hours an employee works in a leave year (but subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks).
Paid leave for public holidays
An employee is also entitled to ten public holidays in a year. The public holidays are:
- New Year's Day (1 January)
- First Monday in February (or 1 February if it falls on a Friday)
- Patrick's Day (17 March)
- Easter Monday
- First Monday in May, June, August
- Last Monday in October
- Christmas Day (25 December)
- Stephen's Day (26 December)
For the avoidance of doubt, Good Friday and Christmas Eve are not public holidays. Employees also receive a paid day off for public holidays.
Contractual entitlement to holiday leave
You’re required by law to provide staff with the statutory minimum holiday entitlements as set out in the OWTA. You can also provide for a greater amount of annual leave as part of the terms and conditions in your employment contract. A generous amount of paid annual leave tends to be a highly prized employee benefit.
If the contractual entitlement to annual leave is greater than the statutory minimum, you must ensure you provide the full contractual amount. Otherwise, you risk breaching the terms of your contract. As an employer, it’s important to comply with your contractual obligations to avoid claims for breach of contract.
You must also ensure that part-time staff members' annual leave entitlements are prorated to the amount full-time employees receive if a discretionary contractual annual leave entitlement exceeds the statutory minimum.
Annual leave and termination of employment
If the employment contract is terminated and the employee has unused holiday entitlements, you’re also required to compensate them for their unused statutory annual leave. How you treat the unused contractual annual leave is up to you but it’s important to confirm your position in the employment contract to avoid disputes.
If an employee leaves your employment in the first half of a leave year, you should pay them for any unused annual leave in both the current leave year and the previous leave year.
And remember the only time you can pay an employee in lieu of providing them with their statutory annual leave entitlement is when the employment relationship is terminated.
Managing holiday requests
If an employee wishes to make a holiday request, they should first give you notice. The amount of notice can be specified in the contract of employment or relevant annual leave policy. If the employee doesn’t comply with the notice periods, you may refuse to grant the leave.
It’s possible for you to cancel annual leave once you have a valid reason and the employee receives necessary notice. If you cancel annual leave, your employee will probably be upset, so you should only do this as a last resort.
It’s important to keep an eye on the amount of leave all employees have left at regular intervals during the year. Remind staff once or twice in the second half of the leave year of how much unused annual leave they have left.
You can also take this opportunity to remind staff to use their statutory minimum and that they risk losing their unused contractual annual leave if you operate a use it or lose it policy in respect of contractual annual leave.
Article: Employer guide to employment contract terms and conditions
When annual leave accrues
Employees on certified sick leave, maternity leave, adoptive leave, parental leave, force majeure leave or the first 13 weeks of caregiver's leave are treated as if they’re still employed during this time and continue to accrue annual leave entitlements. All time spent on protected leave or long-term sick leave (for up to 15 months after the year in which annual leave was accrued) will count towards the accrual of the employee’s annual leave.
Public and Church holidays in Ireland
It may also be useful to know that OWTA allows you to transfer public holidays which fall on Sundays to the following working weekday.
In addition, you can substitute any public holiday with the Church holiday falling immediately before ─ or after ─ the public holiday provided you give your staff notice of your intention to do so.
The Church holiday dates are:
- the 6th day of January, except when falling on a Sunday
- Ascension Thursday
- the Feast of Corpus Christi
- the 15th day of August, except when falling on a Sunday
- the 1st day of November, except when falling on a Sunday
- the 8th day of December, except when falling on a Sunday.
Need advice on annual leave entitlements?
For advice on paid annual leave in Ireland or public holiday entitlements, speak with one of our HR consultants any time 1800 719 216.
