Annual leave and public holidays in Ireland: your rights and pay

A complaint about annual leave or public holiday entitlements must be presented to the WRC within 6 months beginning on the date of the contravention, extendable by up to a further 6 months for reasonable cause (section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015). The statutory leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March unless your employer uses a different leave year. Leave should be taken within the leave year or, with your agreement, within 6 months after it; leave you could not take because of certified illness can be carried over for up to 15 months after the end of the leave year. Payment for untaken leave on termination is due when employment ends.

1. Work out your annual leave entitlement. Section 19 of the 1997 Act gives three methods and you get whichever produces the most leave: 4 working weeks in a leave year in which you work at least 1,365 hours (unless you changed employer during that year); one-third of a working week for each month in which you work at least 117 hours; or 8% of the hours you work in the leave year, up to 4 working weeks. A "working week" is the number of days you usually work in a week, so someone working 3 days a week is entitled to 12 days a year. For variable hours, the 8% method is usually the simplest: 1,000 hours worked gives 80 hours of paid leave.
2. Count all the time that earns leave. Annual leave itself, and days on which you were absent on certified sick leave, are treated as time worked for the purpose of earning leave (section 19(1A), inserted in 2015). So are periods of maternity, adoptive, paternity and parent's leave under the relevant Acts. Unpaid absences and lay-off generally do not earn leave. Keep your rosters, timesheets, payslips and medical certificates, because the employer must keep working time records for 3 years and the WRC will compare them with yours. If you are paid by the hour without fixed hours, check that holiday pay is not being "rolled up" into the hourly rate; leave must be actually taken and paid in advance.
3. Request and take your leave. The employer decides when leave is taken, but must take account of your family responsibilities and opportunities for rest, and must consult you or your union at least one month before the leave starts (section 20). If you work 8 or more months in the leave year, your leave must include an unbroken period of 2 weeks, unless a collective or individual agreement provides otherwise. Pay for leave must be paid in advance at your normal weekly rate, including regular bonuses or allowances that do not vary with the work done. If you fall ill during annual leave and give a medical certificate, those days are not treated as leave and are restored to you.
4. Check your public holiday entitlement. In 2026 the public holidays are: 1 January, St Brigid's Day (Monday 2 February), St Patrick's Day (17 March), Easter Monday (6 April), the first Mondays of May, June and August, the last Monday of October, Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day. Good Friday is not a public holiday. For each one, you are entitled to whichever the employer decides of: a paid day off on the day, a paid day off within a month, an extra day of annual leave, or an extra day's pay. You can ask the employer, at least 21 days before the holiday, which option applies; if it does not reply 14 days in advance, you get the paid day off on the day.
5. Know the rules for part-timers and people on leave. A part-time employee qualifies for a public holiday benefit only after working at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks ending on the day before the holiday; full-time employees qualify from the start. If the public holiday falls on a day you do not normally work, you are still entitled to one-fifth of your normal weekly wage as an extra day's pay, if you meet the 40-hour test. Employees absent for long periods before the holiday, for example more than 52 weeks on occupational injury or more than 26 weeks on illness, may lose the benefit under the Third Schedule. Check your payslip after each public holiday.
6. Check what is due when your job ends. Under section 23, when employment ends for any reason, the employer must pay you for all annual leave earned and not taken in the current leave year, and also for the previous leave year where the employment ends in the first 6 months of the current year or leave was carried over because of illness. If employment ends in the week before a public holiday and you worked in the preceding 4 weeks, you are also owed an extra day's pay for that holiday. Compare your final payslip with your own calculation of untaken leave; errors here are common and easily proved.
7. Raise the shortfall with the employer in writing. Send a short email setting out your calculation of leave earned, taken and outstanding, or the public holidays for which you received no benefit, attach supporting documents and ask for payment or rostered leave by a specific date. Keep it factual. Many disputes about leave are payroll errors that are corrected quickly once a clear calculation is put in front of the employer. Do not let correspondence run on past the 6-month time limit, which keeps running regardless of the employer's promises.
8. Lodge a complaint with the WRC. If the employer does not resolve the issue, lodge a complaint online using the WRC complaint form, selecting the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (annual leave under section 19 or 23, public holidays under section 21). Unpaid holiday pay can also be claimed under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 as an unlawful deduction. There is no fee. An adjudication officer can declare the complaint well founded, order the employer to comply, and award compensation that is just and equitable up to 2 years' remuneration under section 27, often more than the value of the leave itself. Either party can appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days.

• Leaving a leave complaint for more than 6 months after the contravention can put it out of time. Raise disputes about each leave year promptly instead of waiting until you leave the job.
• Accepting pay in lieu of leave while still employed is not allowed for the statutory 4 weeks, except on termination. An offer to "buy back" statutory leave does not satisfy the Act and does not stop a later complaint.
• Not giving medical certificates for illness during leave or for long sick absences means the days are counted as leave taken and carry-over rights are lost. Always send certificates promptly and keep copies.
• Relying on the employer's leave year without checking it: if the contract sets a calendar-year leave year, deadlines for taking and carrying over leave are calculated on that basis, not from 1 April.
• Part-time workers often miss the public holiday benefit because they do not work on the day itself. If you meet the 40-hour test, the benefit is due anyway, so check every payslip.
• Agreeing to a contract term that leave not taken by the year end is forfeited does not override statutory rights for illness carry-over, but you must still assert the right in writing within time.

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Last updated: 03/11/2026 · Sources: Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (s. 19 annual leave, s. 20 times and pay, s. 21 public holidays, s. 23 compensation on cesser, s. 27 redress), Workplace Relations Act 2015 (s. 41 complaints and time limits; s. 86 sick leave and carry-over amendments), Payment of Wages Act 1991, Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, irishstatutebook.ie, EUR-Lex

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