Agricultural Workers (Holidays) Act, 1950

What is this act about?

This law makes provisions for agricultural workers to receive holidays and sets out rules for how these holidays are to be given and paid for. It ensures that agricultural workers get time off and are compensated for it.

Who it applies to: Agricultural workers, defined as persons employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship whose work includes agriculture; Agricultural employers, defined as persons who carry on the trade or business of agriculture and employ agricultural workers.

At a glance

Country: Ireland
Area of law: Social security
Articles: 10
Source: irishstatutebook.ie
Text retrieved: 2026-06-17
Explanation updated: 2026-07-07

What does this act regulate?

The allowance of holidays for agricultural workers.
The payment of holiday remuneration to agricultural workers.
Minimum rates for holiday remuneration, to be set by the Agricultural Wages Board.
Offences and penalties for employers who fail to comply with the holiday and payment requirements.

Who does this act apply to?

Agricultural workers, defined as persons employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship whose work includes agriculture.
Agricultural employers, defined as persons who carry on the trade or business of agriculture and employ agricultural workers.

What are the key points?

Agricultural workers are entitled to six holidays if continuously employed for a year, or one holiday for each two-month period of continuous employment.
Holidays must be allowed before the end of the year, or before employment terminates if it ends during the year.
Sundays, half-holidays, Church holidays, and public holidays are not counted as holidays under this Act.
Employers must pay "holiday remuneration" at not less than the appropriate minimum rate, which becomes payable the day before holidays begin.
Failure to allow holidays or pay holiday remuneration can result in a fine not exceeding twenty pounds upon summary conviction.

Social security

Old Age Pension Act, 1924

Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1923

Social Welfare Act, 1974

Sea Fisheries Act, 1931

British-Irish Agreement (Amendment) Act, 2002

Vocational Education (Amendment) Act, 1947

Connaught Rangers (Pensions) Act, 1936

Courts of Justice and Court Officers (Superannuation) Act, 1961

Social security

Legal text

Contents (10)

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
Section 10

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AGRICULTURAL WORKERS (HOLIDAYS) ACT, 1950.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Section

Section 1

Commencement and consequential provision.

Section 2

Definitions.

Section 3

Holidays.

Section 4

Holiday remuneration.

Section 5

Minimum rates of holiday remuneration.

Section 6

Offences.

Section 7

Recovery of holiday remuneration.

Section 8

Annual Reports.

Section 9

Expenses.

Section 10

Short title.

Act Referred to Agricultural Wages Act, 1936 No. 53 of 1936 Number 21 of 1950.

AGRICULTURAL WORKERS (HOLIDAYS) ACT, 1950.

AN ACT TO MAKE PROVISION FOR THE ALLOWANCE OF HOLIDAYS TO AGRICULTURAL WORKERS AND TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH. [26th July, 1950.] BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:— Commencement and consequential provision.

1.—(1) This Act shall come into operation on such day in the year 1950 as the Minister for Agriculture shall by order appoint.

(2)This Act shall not impose any liability upon an agricultural employer in respect of the employment before the commencement of this Act of an agricultural worker who, at such commencement, is no longer in his employment.

Definitions.

2.—In this Act— “agricultural worker” means a person employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship whose work under such contract is or includes work in agriculture, but does not include a person whose work under such contract is mainly domestic; “agricultural employer” means a person who carries on the trade or business of agriculture and who employs other persons as agricultural workers for the purposes of such trade or business; “agriculture” includes dairy-farming and the use of land as grazing, meadow, or pasture land or orchard or osier land or woodland or for market gardens or nursery grounds; “the Board” means the Agricultural Wages Board; “year” means the year 1950 or any subsequent year.

Holidays.

3.—(1) In each year, an agricultural employer shall allow to an agricultural worker holidays to the following extent— (a) six holidays where the worker is continuously employed by him during that year, or (b) one holiday in respect of each period in that year of two months' duration during which the worker is continuously employed by him.

(2)Where a worker is entitled to three or more holidays under this section, the holidays shall be allowed on consecutive days.

(3)The holidays to be allowed in respect of any year or period in a year shall be allowed before the end of the year, and, if the employment terminates during the year, the holidays shall be allowed before it terminates.

(4)Sundays and such half-holidays, Church holidays and public holidays as may be allowed to the worker by arrangement with his employer shall not be reckoned as holidays for the purposes of this Act.

(5)Subject to the other provisions of this section, the worker and his employer may make such arrangements as they think fit for the allowance of holidays.

(6)Interruptions of employment not exceeding in the aggregate eight days in any period of two months shall not be regarded as breaking the continuity of employment provided that the worker did not work for any other agricultural employer on those days.

(7)Where a worker, instead of taking holidays which he is to be allowed under this section, remains at work with his employer's consent, the employer shall be deemed to have allowed the holidays to the worker if he pays him holiday remuneration in respect of them, in addition to wages, before the end of the year in which the holidays are to be allowed or, if the employment terminates during the year, before it terminates.

Holiday remuneration.

4.—(1) An agricultural employer who is required under this Act to allow holidays to an agricultural worker shall pay to the worker in respect of those holidays a sum in lieu of wages, in this Act referred to as “holiday remuneration,” calculated at not less than the appropriate minimum rate fixed by order under section 5.

(2)Holiday remuneration shall become payable on the day before the holidays begin.

(3)Where a worker ceases to be employed without having been allowed a holiday to which he had become entitled under this Act the employer shall thereupon pay to him a sum, in this Act also referred to as “holiday remuneration,” equal to the holiday remuneration in respect of that holiday.

Minimum rates of holiday remuneration.

5.—The power conferred on the Board by section 17 of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936 (No. 53 of 1936), to make orders fixing minimum rates of wages shall extend to the making of orders fixing minimum rates of holiday remuneration and the provisions of that Act relating to orders under that section shall apply accordingly.

Offences.

6.—(1) (a) If an agricultural employer fails to allow holidays to an agricultural worker in accordance with this Act he shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds. (b) It shall be a good defence to a prosecution under this subsection for the employer to prove that he was rendered unable to allow the holidays by reason of the termination of the worker's employment in circumstances which he could not reasonably have anticipated.

(2)(a) If an agricultural employer fails to pay holiday remuneration to an agricultural worker in accordance with this Act he shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds. (b) In any proceedings against a person under this subsection it shall lie with such person to prove that he has paid holiday remuneration at not less than the appropriate minimum rate.

Recovery of holiday remuneration.

7.—(1) Where proceedings are brought against an agricultural employer charging him with an offence under this Act in relation to any alleged default in payment of holiday remuneration, the Court may, whether there is a conviction or not, if satisfied that there has been default within the twenty-four months immediately preceding the date on which the proceedings were commenced, order the employer to pay to the worker a sum equal to the amount of the default.

(2)Where there has been a default in payment of holiday remuneration, then, subject to subsection (3) of this section, an officer of the Board may, in the name and on behalf of the worker, institute civil proceedings to recover the amount of the default, without prejudice to the right of the worker to institute such proceedings.

(3)Notwithstanding anything contained in any enactment, civil proceedings shall not be commenced to recover the amount of any default in payment unless— (a) if the worker has at the date of the commencement of the proceedings ceased to be in the employment of the employer— (i) the proceedings are commenced within twenty-four months of the date of such cesser, and (ii) the default occurred within the twenty-four months immediately preceding the date of such cesser, or (b) if the worker is in the employment of the employer at the date of the commencement of the proceedings—the default occurred within the twenty-four months immediately preceding the date of the commencement of the proceedings.

(4)Any agreement for the payment of holiday remuneration in contravention of this Act or for abstaining from exercising any right of enforcing the payment of holiday remuneration in accordance with this Act shall be void.

Annual Reports.

8.—The annual report which the Board are required by section 21 of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936 , to make to the Minister for Agriculture shall include a report of their proceedings under this Act.

Expenses.

9.—All expenses incurred in carrying this Act into execution shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

Short title.

10.—This Act may be cited as the Agricultural Workers (Holidays) Act, 1950.

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