Published: March 14th, 2024
In Ireland, there are ten paid public holidays annually. They’re sometimes called bank holidays, but for the purposes of holiday pay, it’s these ten public holidays that are relevant. It’s important to know your employees’ entitlement to holiday pay to make sure you comply with employment law.
When these public holidays come around, you may be left wondering whether you need to provide public holiday payments to your staff.
So, to help you understand your employees’ rights, this guide explains how to apply public holiday pay in Ireland.
Employee public holiday pay entitlements
Your full-time staff members have an entitlement to be paid for the ten public holidays in Ireland. They are:
- New Year’s Day (January 1st)
- St Brigid’s Day (February 1st IF it falls on a Friday, and if not, then the first Monday in February)
- St Patrick’s Day (March 17th)
- Easter Monday
- The first Monday in May
- The first Monday in June
- The first Monday in August
- The last Monday in October
- Christmas Day (December 25th)
- Stephen’s Day (December 26th)
On the ten public holidays, full-time staff have the legal right to be paid what are sometimes known as public holidays Ireland pay rates.
Essentially, your full-time staff have an entitlement to one of the following benefits during the ten public holidays:
- A day off with pay.
- An extra day of annual leave.
- An extra day of pay.
- A day off with pay within a month of the public holiday.
Your staff’s entitlement to paid annual leave including public holidays is legislated by the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
Is there double pay for public holidays?
The Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay For Holidays) Regulations (SI 475/1997) sets out how to correctly calculate public holiday pay in Ireland.
There tends to be confusion as to whether extra pay is due on public holidays: no, there isn’t anything like a “double pay law.”
If your employee works on a public holiday, then you instead need to provide them with one of the options listed above.
Public holiday pay for part-time employees
When it comes to employees who do not work full time, the public holiday entitlement situation is a bit different.
First, do all part-time employees get public holiday pay?
No: you are not obliged to pay a part-time employee who hasn’t worked 40 hours for you in the five weeks before the public holiday.
If they have completed more than forty hours’ work, then yes, you must provide the same entitlement to a paid day off or one of the other options listed above.
And how can you calculate bank holiday pay for employees who don’t work full-time? Part-time employees who normally work on the day that the public holiday falls on are entitled to a paid day off – or, the alternatives outlined above. The employee’s pay should be equivalent to the hours they worked on the last day before the public holiday.
If staff do not normally work on the day the bank holiday falls, they should receive one-fifth of their average weekly wage.
Maternity leave and bank holiday pay
You must treat staff as if they’re in employment while they’re off on maternity leave. So, they accrue holiday days – just like your other employees.
This also means they’re able to claim public holidays, as and when they occur during the course of a working year. Refusal to allow bank holiday pay may lead to a costly discrimination claim.
Bank holiday pay for agency workers Under the EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work 2008/104/EC, all temporary agency workers must receive equal treatment as regular staff when it comes to certain conditions of employment.
As a result, you should provide agency workers with the same public holiday entitlements as staff working directly for you. The EU Directive is transposed into Irish law by the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012. Irish employment laws provide employees with strong protections, so you should make sure you respect their rights.
Need our help?
If you need our assistance on employees’ annual leave pay rights, get immediate support from a HR consultant on 1800 719 216.
