Annual leave entitlements

All employees, regardless of status or service, qualify for paid holidays. In the case of agency workers, the party who pays the wages is the employer and is responsible for providing the holidays/public holiday entitlement. 

Depending on time worked, holiday entitlements should be calculated by using one of the following methods: 

1.   If you work at least 1,365 hours in a leave year you are entitled to:

• four working weeks (unless it is a leave year in which you change employment)

2. If you work less than 1,365 hours in a year you are entitled to the more favourable of:

• one third of a working week for each calendar month in which you work at least 117 hours; or
• 8% of the hours you work in a leave year (subject to a maximum of four working weeks)

Under the Organisation of Working Time Act, payment in lieu of the minimum statutory holiday entitlement is prohibited unless the employment is terminated. If you leave your job you are entitled to payment for any untaken annual leave. 

After having worked for eight months in a leave year, you are entitled to an unbroken period of two weeks' annual leave.  This period may include one or more public holidays. 

All hours worked qualify for paid holiday time. This includes time spent on maternity leave, parental leave, adoptive leave, force majeure leave, the first 13 weeks of carer's leave and annual leave and public holidays taken during the calculation period.

Job-sharing, and part-time nurses/midwives should keep a record of all hours worked to ensure that they are granted the correct annual leave allowance.

The Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 provides statutory minimum entitlements for all employees to holidays and public holidays.

In the case of agency nurses/midwives the party who pays the wages is considered to be the employer and is responsible for providing the holidays/public holidays entitlement. 

Nurses/midwives employed in the health services receive the following annual leave entitlements which exceed the statutory minimum entitlements. 

Pro-rata arrangements are agreed for part-time nurses/midwives as follows: 

 24 days annual leave = 9.2 hours per 100 hours worked 

25 days annual leave = 9.6 hours per 100 hours worked 

26 days annual leave = 9.96 hours per 100 hours worked 

27 days annual leave = 10.4 hours per 100 hours worked 

28 days annual leave =10.7 hours per 100 hours worked 

From the 14th April 2010, part-time employees who work additional hours in excess of their contracted hours are entitled to accrue annual leave in respect of the additional hours worked up to a maximum of the annual leave entitlement for the whole-time equivalent (WTE) grade. 
 
Nurses/midwives employed in the health service who work a '5 over 7' roster receive additional annual leave in lieu of their liability to work on public holidays, i.e. 10 days in the case of full-time nurses/midwives and 5 days in the case of job-sharing nurses/midwives. 

If you work varying weekly hours or shifts of varying lengths, you should convert your annual leave entitlement into hours.  

This is done by multiplying the number of annual leave days by 7.5 hours. 

 
Example 
24 annual leave days multiplied by 7.5 hours = 180 hours. 
Each time you take annual leave, the number of hours you would normally have been rostered to work on the day(s) taken should be aggregated to determine the amount of annual leave taken.

The following service may be used to calculate annual leave.

• Cumulative service in the publicly funded health services in Ireland.
• Relevant nursing/midwifery experience abroad, subject to production of satisfactory documentary evidence.
• Previous service in the following private hospitals:
  • Dublin - Bon Secours, Mater, St. Vincent's, Mount Carmel, Blackrock, St. John of God, St Patrick's - all in Dublin
  • Cork and Tralee - Bon Secours
  • Galway - Galvia
  • Kilkenny - Aut Evan

Under the Organisation of Working Time Act, the time at which annual leave is taken is decided by your employer. This decision is informed by work requirements and the opportunities for rest and recreation available to you. However, your employer must also consider your need to reconcile work and family responsibilities. 

If you fall sick while on annual leave and you produce a medical certificate, the period of sickness should be recorded as sick leave and not as annual leave.

You should be paid for annual leave in advance of taking the leave. 

While on parental leave you will continue to accrue annual leave. 

While you are on maternity leave and additional maternity leave you will continue to accrue annual leave.

HSE HR Circular 08/2012 provides that health service employees are entitled to accrue annual leave during periods of paid sick leave, where they are unable to take such leave in the current leave year, they are entitled to carry forward this leave into a new leave year over a three-year cycle. 

Changes to the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 mean that with effect from 1 August 2015:

• employees are entitled to accrue statutory annual leave while on periods of certified sick (i.e. during both paid and unpaid periods of sick leave);
• employees who cannot, due to illness, take annual leave during the leave year in which it accrued or during the normal carryover period of 6 months, will be able to carryover such leave for a period of 15 months after the end of the leave year in question; and  
• employees who leave their employment within 15 months after the end of the leave year in which they accrued statutory annual leave while on sick leave and which was untaken, are entitled to payment in lieu of this leave. 

The current arrangements for health service employees are as follows:  

Employees accumulate annual leave during all periods of certified sick leave.  

The annual leave accrued is based on the statutory entitlement of 4 working weeks in a leave year. In addition to the existing arrangements set out in HSE HR Circular 08/2012, the statutory annual entitlement applies to periods of unpaid sick leave and periods during which the employee is in receipt of Temporary Rehabilitation Remuneration and the injury grant.