Part-time nurses and midwives

Any part-time employee working under a contract of employment or employed through an agency is covered by the Act.  It should be noted, however, that a part-time agency worker can only compare themself to a full-time agency worker. Similarly, a part-time employee can only compare themself to a full-time employee. 
 
A part-time employee is an employee who works less than the normal full-time hours for the grade. 

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.  

Part-time employees who work additional hours in excess of their contracted hours will be entitled to accrue annual leave for the additional hours worked up to a maximum of the annual leave entitlement for the whole-time equivalent (WTE) grade (HSE Circular 1/2012). 

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

First of all, in order to qualify for public holiday entitlement you must have worked at least 40 hours in the five weeks ending on the day before the public holiday. (Please refer to the INMO's explanatory leaflet, Public Holiday Entitlements).[insert link here] 

Nurses/midwives employed in the public health service who work a ‘5 over 7’ roster (seven-day week) receive additional annual leave in lieu of their liability to work on public holidays. This amounts to ten days in the case of full-time nurses/midwives and proportionately less in respect of job-sharers and part-timers.  In addition, they also receive double pay in respect of any public holiday on which they are required to work. 

Job-sharing nurses/midwives who work Monday to Friday and who do not normally work on the day on which the public holiday falls are entitled to one-tenth of their normal fortnightly pay for the public holiday. 

Part-time nurses/midwives who work Monday to Friday and who do not normally work on the day on which the public holiday falls are entitled to one-fifth of their normal weekly pay for the public holiday. 

Even though you may never be rostered to work on a public holiday you will be entitled to one-fifth of your normal weekly pay (one-tenth of fortnightly pay in the case of jobsharers). 

To calculate your public holiday entitlement, divide your weekly hours by five.  For example, if you work 24 hours each week you are entitled to 4.8 hours for each of the ten public holidays.  In addition, if you are employed in the public health service and you are required to work on a public holiday you will receive double time for all hours worked on that day.  

With effect from 1 February 2002, it is compulsory for all nurses and midwives employed in the public health service (including temporary and part-time) to join the superannuation scheme. Nurses/midwives on fixed-term contracts and those employed under a potentially renewable contract of employment are required to join the scheme. 

Please refer to the INMO's explanatory leaflet on annual leave entitlements. 

Your holiday entitlement is calculated on a pro rata basis taking into consideration service and grade. For nurses/midwives working in the public health service, the following two methods of calculation may be used: 
 

Method 1: 

Example 

A staff nurse who has worked a total of 700 hours in a year with 5-10 years' service is entitled to 67.2 hours annual leave, i.e. 700 x 9.6% = 67.2. This method is particularly appropriate for nurses who work irregular hours. 

Method 2: 

Example 

A staff nurse working 25 hours each week with more than 10 years' service is entitled to 18 days, i.e.  27÷ 37.5 x 25 = 18 (7.5-hour days). 

If you do not work 7.5-hour days, you should convert your annual leave into hours (section 6 of INMO Annual Leave Leaflet).  You can then either: 

Deduct annual leave days of varying lengths from the total number of annual leave hours. 

Example 

If your annual leave amounts to 72 hours and you are due to take two days' annual leave, one of which is a 12-hour shift and the other an 8-hour shift, simply deduct 20 hours from 72 hours.  You will then be left with a total of 50 hours annual leave. 

Divide the total annual leave hours by the number of hours you work each day to get the total number of annual leave days to which you are entitled. 

Example 

If your annual leave amounts to 72 hours and you work 6-hour days, the number of 6-hour annual leave days to which you are entitled is calculated as follows: 72 ÷ 6 = 12 (6-hour days). 

As a part-time worker you are entitled to exactly the same pay and conditions of employment, but on a pro-rata basis. This means pay and entitlements such as annual leave and sick leave will be calculated based on the number of hours worked. 

A part-time employee can be compared to a full-time employee in the following circumstances: 

• Where both the part-time employee and the full-time employee are employed by the same or associated employer, or 
• Where both are employed in the same industry or sector of employment; and 
• Where the part-time employee performs work which is equal or greater in value to the work performed by the 'comparable' full-time employee.