Annual leave and public holidays guideline

Statutory annual leave and public holiday entitlements are set out under Part III of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. There is no formal qualifying period of service with the employer before an employee (full-time or part-time, permanent or temporary) qualifies for paid annual leave.

Qualification is on the basis of:

all time actually worked by an employee, including overtime;
hours notionally worked during statutory maternity leave, additional maternity leave, extended maternity leave, adoptive leave, additional adoptive leave, health and safety leave, remaining maternity leave to which a father is entitled on the death of a mother, parental leave, carer’s leave and force majeure leave;
certified sick leave*;
time worked on public holidays;
annual leave itself (calculated on the basis of hours which would have been worked had the employee not been on holiday on the days concerned).

*Section 86 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 which was commenced on 1 August 2015 amended sections 19, 20 and 23 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 to bring the Act into line with recent rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union to allow workers to accrue annual leave during periods of certified sick leave. However, the entitlement of workers who are on long-term sick leave will be capped; leave will be subject to a maximum “carry-over” period of up to 15 months from the end of the leave year in which it accrued. The precise entitlement of an employee returning from long-term sick leave will depend on what month of the year the employee comes back to work.

This guideline aims to provide employers and managers with a reference document on annual leave and public holidays. Both the legal and non-legal aspects are considered.

Guideline 8 - Annual Leave_May 2016.pdf - 469 Kbytes

Thursday, 19 May 2016