Overtime pay, Sunday premium and working hours in Ireland

Complaints under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and the Payment of Wages Act 1991 must reach the WRC within 6 months of the contravention (s. 41(6) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015), extendable to 12 months only for reasonable cause (s. 41(8)). Each week of excessive hours, each missed rest period and each short payment is a separate contravention with its own 6-month clock, so in practice the WRC can only deal with breaches that fall within the 6 months (or, exceptionally, 12 months) before your complaint is received. If you request a band of hours in writing, the employer must place you in the band within 4 weeks of your request (s. 18A(3) of the 1997 Act). An appeal from the adjudication officer to the Labour Court must be lodged within 42 days of the decision.

1. Find out what you are actually entitled to be paid. Since 2019 your employer must give you, within 5 days of starting, a written statement including the hours it reasonably expects you to work per normal day and week and the rate or method of calculating your pay (s. 3(1A) of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, inserted by the 2018 Act). Read it with your contract and handbook and look for: the overtime rate (for example time-and-a-quarter or time-and-a-half), whether overtime is compulsory, whether your salary is stated to include overtime or Sunday work, and any premium for nights or public holidays. Then check whether a sectoral employment order or employment regulation order covers your sector; under the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 such orders can fix pay for overtime, unsocial hours and Sunday work.
2. Keep your own record of hours from today. Note your start and finish times, the breaks you actually got, every Sunday worked and every roster change, and save texts or emails asking you to stay late or come in early. Your employer must keep records showing compliance with the Act for at least 3 years (s. 25(1)); where there is no clocking-in system, the hours must be recorded on Form OWT1 or an equivalent under S.I. No. 473 of 2001. Ask in writing for copies of the clocking or roster records for the period you are concerned about. If the employer has not kept the required records, section 25(4) puts the burden on the employer to prove that it complied, which is a significant advantage for you at a hearing.
3. Check the 48-hour average. Section 15 prohibits an employer from permitting you to work more than an average of 48 hours in each 7 days, averaged over a reference period of up to 4 months (6 months in certain activities or where exceptional circumstances apply, up to 12 months under a collective agreement approved by the Labour Court). Leave of the statutory minimum, maternity and adoptive leave and sick leave are left out of the reference period. Example: over a 17-week period you worked 55 hours in 10 weeks and 40 hours in 7 weeks, a total of 830 hours, which averages 48.8 hours a week and breaches the limit. There is no individual opt-out in Irish law, so a clause in which you "agree" to work longer does not make it lawful.
4. Check your daily rest, breaks and weekly rest. You must get 11 consecutive hours' rest in every 24-hour period (s. 11), a 15-minute break after 4 hours 30 minutes and a 30-minute break after 6 hours, which may include the first one (s. 12). A break at the end of the day does not count. Shop employees whose hours include 11.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. are entitled to a one-hour break starting in that window after 6 hours' work (S.I. No. 57 of 1998). Weekly rest is 24 consecutive hours, normally preceded by a daily rest period, or two 24-hour periods in the following week (s. 13). Shift changes, split shifts and genuine emergencies can displace these rules, but you must then get equivalent compensatory rest. Breaks need not be paid unless your contract says so.
5. Work out your Sunday premium. Under section 14, if you are required to work on a Sunday and that has not otherwise been taken into account in your pay, the employer must compensate you by a reasonable allowance, a reasonable increase in your rate, reasonable paid time off, or a combination. Where a collective agreement fixes a Sunday rate for comparable employees in your sector, that value is treated as reasonable (s. 14(3)); if two agreements apply, the lower one. If your contract says your rate already "includes" Sunday work, ask the employer to show how; a bare statement is often not enough. Retail employers should also follow the Code of Practice on Sunday Working in the Retail Trade (S.I. No. 444 of 1998), which is admissible in evidence before the WRC.
6. Use the protections for variable and low hours. If your contract has no fixed start and finish times, your employer must tell you at least 24 hours in advance when you will work each day, and likewise for extra hours (s. 17), except in unforeseeable circumstances. Zero-hours contracts are banned except for emergencies and short-term relief cover (s. 18, as substituted by the 2018 Act). If you are required to be available but are given less than 25% of your contract hours, or sent home early, you are entitled to be paid for 25% of those hours, capped at 15 hours, with the minimum payment calculated as 3 times the national minimum hourly rate, which is 3 × €14.15 = €42.45 in 2026, or 3 times the hourly rate in an applicable employment regulation order.
7. Ask to be placed in a band of hours if your contract understates your hours. Under section 18A, inserted by the 2018 Act, if your contract or statement of terms does not reflect the hours you have actually worked over the previous 12 months, you can ask in writing to be placed in the matching band: A (3 to 6 hours a week) up to H (36 hours and over). The band is set by your average weekly hours over the 12 months and must apply from no later than 4 weeks after your request. The employer can refuse only on limited grounds, such as no evidence of the hours, significant adverse changes to the business, exceptional circumstances, or a temporary situation that has ended. Once placed, you stay in the band for at least 12 months.
8. Raise the issue, then complain to the WRC. Put your complaint in writing to your manager or through the grievance procedure, giving dates and figures. Section 26 (as substituted by the 2018 Act) prohibits penalising you for invoking your rights, opposing a breach or giving evidence. If the issue is not resolved, lodge a complaint on the WRC's online form at workplacerelations.ie, selecting each section of the 1997 Act breached and, for overtime pay that your contract entitles you to but that was not paid, a complaint under the Payment of Wages Act 1991. Section 5(6) of that Act treats any shortfall in wages properly payable as an unlawful deduction. There is no fee. For breaches of the 1997 Act the adjudication officer can order compliance and compensation of up to 2 years' remuneration (s. 27(3)).

• A Payment of Wages complaint succeeds only for wages "properly payable". If your contract never gave you an overtime premium, the WRC cannot award one; it can still find a breach of the 48-hour limit or rest rules and award compensation under the 1997 Act.
• Waiting costs money. Because each contravention has its own 6-month limit, weeks of excessive hours or unpaid Sundays that fall outside the limit are usually lost. Lodge the complaint while the dispute is ongoing rather than after you leave.
• Not everyone is covered. The 1997 Act does not apply to members of An Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces, and the rest and hours rules do not apply to people who effectively determine their own working time (s. 3(2)(c)), which employers sometimes argue for senior staff. Transport workers, doctors in training and sea workers have separate regulations.
• Banded hours give no compensation. Under section 18A(10) the WRC can order the employer to place you in the correct band but cannot award money for the failure, so a banded hours complaint is about the future, not past losses.
• Agreeing in writing to work over 48 hours or to skip breaks does not waive your rights, but repeatedly working through breaks without recording it makes the breach very hard to prove. Note every missed break at the time.
• Holiday pay in Ireland is calculated excluding overtime pay under S.I. No. 475 of 1997, even where overtime is regular. Whether regular overtime should count under EU law is an argument some employees raise, but do not assume your holiday pay will include it.
• If you are dismissed or have your hours cut after complaining, act quickly: penalisation is a separate claim under section 26, but you cannot recover twice under both section 26 and the Unfair Dismissals Acts for the same dismissal.

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Last updated: 04/11/2026 · Sources: Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (s. 11 daily rest, s. 12 breaks, s. 13 weekly rest, s. 14 Sunday work, s. 15 48-hour average, s. 17 notice of hours, s. 25 records, s. 27 redress), Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 (zero hours, minimum payment, banded hours s. 18A, penalisation), Payment of Wages Act 1991 (s. 5 – deductions and shortfalls, s. 6 – complaints), Workplace Relations Act 2015 (s. 41 – complaints and time limits, s. 44 – appeals), irishstatutebook.ie, EUR-Lex

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