Annual leave for hospitality staff in Ireland: entitlement, holiday pay and worked examples

Annual leave in Ireland is calculated from hours worked, which suits hospitality: it works the same way for a full-time head chef, a three-night-a-week lounge server and a student who only does summers. What trips venues up is choosing the wrong method, paying holiday pay at the wrong rate, or treating casuals as if they don't qualify. This guide sets out the rules from section 19 and 20 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and S.I. No. 475/1997, then works through examples with euro figures.

If you only want the number for one person, use our annual leave calculator.

Who gets annual leave

Everyone you employ. The WRC says all employees, whether full-time, part-time, temporary or casual, earn annual leave from the time they start work. There's no qualifying period. The legal maximum is 4 working weeks a year; you can give more in the contract.

A "working week" means the number of days the person usually works in a week (s.19(6)). For a five-day chef, 4 working weeks is 20 days. For someone who works three 8-hour shifts, it's 12 days, or 96 hours.

The three methods (use whichever gives more)

Section 19(1) sets out three ways to count leave. If more than one applies, the employee gets the biggest result.

When counting hours, include time spent on annual leave, certified sick leave, maternity, parental, force majeure and adoptive leave, and the first 13 weeks of carer's leave (Citizens Information). Leave keeps building up while someone is on those types of leave.

Worked examples

All figures are illustrative.

A full-time chef who works the whole year

Aoife works 40 hours over five days for the whole leave year, well over 1,365 hours. Method 1 gives her 4 working weeks: 20 days. Her normal weekly pay is a fixed €720, so each week of leave is paid at €720, in advance.

A full-timer who starts in October

Dara starts on 1 October and works 40 hours a week. The leave year runs 1 April to 31 March, so by 31 March he has six calendar months (October to March) of over 117 hours.

• Method 2: 6 months × ⅓ of a working week = 2 working weeks = 10 days.
• Method 3: about 26 weeks × 40 hours = 1,040 hours × 8% = 83.2 hours, which is 10.4 days of 8 hours.

Method 3 gives slightly more, so Dara gets 83.2 hours. Method 1 doesn't apply because he hasn't reached 1,365 hours.

A part-time lounge server

Niamh works Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, about 18 hours a week, for 50 weeks: roughly 900 hours. No month reaches 117 hours, so only Method 3 applies: 900 × 8% = 72 hours of paid leave, which is four of her normal weeks. At €14.15 an hour that's €1,018.80 of holiday pay across the year.

A summer casual

A student works 30 hours a week from June to the end of August, 13 weeks and 390 hours. 8% of 390 = 31.2 hours of leave. If they leave in September without taking it, it must be paid out (s.23).

How holiday pay is calculated

S.I. No. 475/1997 sets the "normal weekly rate" for annual leave:

• Fixed pay (an hourly rate for set hours, or a salary): the pay for the normal weekly hours last worked before the leave starts, including any regular bonus or allowance that doesn't vary with the work done, but excluding overtime.
• Pay that varies (changing hours, commission, piece rates): the average weekly pay over the 13 weeks ending immediately before the leave, again excluding overtime. If the person didn't work in those 13 weeks, use the 13 weeks ending on the last day they worked.

Holiday pay must be paid in advance of the leave (s.20(2)). Where board or lodging is part of someone's pay, as it can be for live-in hotel staff, holiday pay must also include compensation for the board or lodging they won't receive while away (s.20(2)(c)).

Example (variable pay). A bartender with no fixed hours earned €4,290 (no overtime) in the 13 weeks before booking a week off. Their normal weekly rate is €4,290 ÷ 13 = €330, paid before the week starts.

When leave is taken, and the 2-week rule

The employer decides when annual leave is taken, having regard to work needs, but section 20(1) adds conditions. You must:

• take into account the employee's family responsibilities and their opportunities for rest and recreation;
• consult them (or their union) at least one month before the leave starts;
• grant the leave within the leave year or, with the employee's agreement, within 6 months after it.

Someone who works 8 months or more in a leave year is entitled to an unbroken 2 weeks as part of their leave, unless an agreement says otherwise (s.19(3)). That matters for venues that ban holidays in summer: someone may still need a two-week block at some point in the year.

Sick leave and annual leave

If someone falls ill during annual leave and gives you a medical certificate, those days aren't treated as annual leave (s.19(2)), so they get them back. Leave also keeps building up during certified sick leave. If someone on long-term sick leave can't take their leave in the year or the normal 6-month carry-over, Citizens Information says they can carry it over for up to 15 months after the leave year, and are paid for it if they leave within that period.

When someone leaves

If a member of staff leaves with statutory leave untaken, you must pay them for it at the normal weekly rate (s.23). The WRC is clear that outside that situation you can't pay money in place of the statutory minimum: staff have to actually take the time off. Paying casuals "8% on top" every payslip doesn't replace their leave.

Records you need

The WRC's list of statutory records includes holiday and public holiday entitlements received by each employee. In practice, keep for each person:

• the leave year you use (1 April to 31 March, or the calendar year);
• hours worked, so you can apply all three methods;
• leave taken, with dates, and holiday pay given;
• any leave paid out on leaving.

Mistakes we see on Irish rosters

1. Giving casuals nothing. They earn leave from day one, usually at 8%.
2. Paying holiday pay at basic rate for staff whose hours swing. Use the 13-week average.
3. Counting overtime in holiday pay. S.I. No. 475/1997 excludes it.
4. Approving leave the week before. You're meant to consult a month ahead; build a request deadline into your roster routine.
5. Forgetting public holidays. They're separate from annual leave: see public holidays in hospitality.

Running leave with ShiftComplete

In ShiftComplete you record holidays against each person, so they don't get rostered while they're off. If you switch the setting on, staff can request holiday from their phone and a manager approves it, which gives you a dated trail of every request. Time tracking (another setting) lets staff clock in and out, and you can download hours as a spreadsheet with a total per person, which is the starting point for the 8% method. ShiftComplete doesn't calculate holiday pay for you; it helps you keep the hours and leave records a WRC inspector asks to see. €1.99 per active staff member per month, free for 60 days, no card.