Annual leave

Annual leave (also called holidays) is paid time off work. All types of employees are entitled to annual leave, including full-time, part-time, temporary and casual workers.

Most employees are entitled to 4 working weeks’ of annual leave each year. This is set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (as amended) and is known as your statutory entitlement.

‘Working week’ means the number of days you usually work in a week. For example, if you usually work 3 days a week for 10 hours on each day (30 hours), your annual leave week is also 3 days (30 hours).

Your employer might give you more annual leave. You can check your entitlement to annual leave in your contract of employment.

Annual leave and other types of leave

Your entitlement to annual leave is not affected by time you spend on annual leave or other types of statutory leave (that means leave protected by law). You continue to build up (or ‘accrue’) annual leave while you are on certified sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, adoptive leave, parental leave, force majeure leave, the first 13 weeks of carer's leave, and more. Learn more in ‘Calculating your annual leave' below.

Your annual leave entitlement depends on how much time you have worked in a leave year.

The statutory leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Many employers use the calendar year (January to December) instead of the statutory leave year for administrative reasons but this does not affect your statutory leave entitlements.

Calculating your annual leave

There are 3 ways to calculate your annual leave entitlement. You can use whichever method gives you the greater (biggest) entitlement:

Method 1

If you have worked at least 1,365 hours in a leave year (explained above), you are entitled to the maximum of 4 working weeks' paid annual leave.

You cannot use this method if you changed employment during the leave year.

Method 2

Calculate 1/3 of a working week for each calendar month in which you worked at least 117 hours.

Method 3

Calculate 8% of the hours you worked in the leave year, subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks.

Note - for each method:

‘Working week’ means the number of days you usually work in a week. For example, if you usually work 3 days a week for 10 hours on each day (30 hours), your annual leave week is also 3 days (30 hours).

When calculating your holiday entitlement, your employer should include all the hours you worked, including time spent on annual leave, certified sick leave, maternity leave, parental leave, force majeure leave, adoptive leave or the first 13 weeks of carer’s leave.

If you have worked for at least 8 months, you are entitled to an unbroken period of 2 weeks' annual leave. This means you can get 2 weeks off in a row.

Holiday pay

Holiday pay (pay for annual leave) must be paid in advance at your normal weekly rate.

If your pay changes from week-to-week (for example, because of commission or bonus payments), your holiday pay is the average of your pay over the 13 weeks before you take holidays.

Part-time employees

Generally, annual leave for part-time workers is calculated using Method 3 above. This means you can get 8% of your hours worked.

If you work full time for some months and part-time for the rest of the year, you should calculate the leave for the full-time and the part-time periods of work separately.

Agency employees

If you are an agency worker, the party who pays your wages (employment agency or client company) is the employer for the purposes of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, and is responsible for providing your annual leave entitlement.

Usually, employees can ask to take annual leave at specific times. Your employer can accept or refuse your request.

Your employer decides when annual leave may be taken, but this is subject to some conditions. Your employer must:

• Consider your family responsibilities, as well as the available opportunities for rest and recreation.
• Discuss your annual leave with you (or your union) at least one month before you are to take the leave.

Can I ‘carry over’ annual leave to next year?

Annual leave should be taken within the leave year. Depending on your employer, you can agree to take your annual leave within 6 months of the relevant leave year.

Any further carrying-over (also called holding over) of annual leave would need to be agreed between you and your employer.

What if I get sick while on annual leave?

If you are sick while you are on annual leave, you should get a medical certificate from your GP (doctor) as soon as possible to cover the days you were sick. Give the medical certificate to your employer as soon as you return to work.

This way, the certified sick days will not count as annual leave, and you can take your annual leave at a later date. Your employer cannot make you to take annual leave for time you were on certified sick leave.

What happens to my annual leave when I am off sick?

Your statutory entitlement (legal entitlement) to annual leave continues to build up when you are on sick leave, if you have a medical certificate.

Carrying over your holidays

If you are on long-term sick leave and cannot take your annual leave due to illness, you can carry it over for up to 15 months after the end of the year it was earned.

If you leave your job within these 15 months, you should get payment instead of the leave you did not take due to illness.

These protections are set out in an amendment to the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

In general, you are treated as being in employment while you are on:

• Annual leave
• Certified sick leave
• Maternity leave or additional maternity leave
• Adoptive leave or additional adoptive leave
• Paternity leave
• Parental leave
• Parent’s leave
• Health and safety leave
• Force majeure leave

This means you can continue to build up your statutory entitlement to annual leave.

You are entitled to annual leave for the first 13 weeks of carer’s leave.

In general, your annual leave is calculated based on hours worked. This is set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.

Leaving your job

If you are leaving a job without taking all the annual leave you are entitled to, your employer must pay you for the days you have not taken.

Lay off or short-time working

During lay off or short-time working, you are still an employee of the company and your contract of employment remains valid.

You do not build up annual leave during lay off, but you are entitled to take annual leave that you built up before being laid off.

If you think your holiday entitlement is wrong, try speaking informally to your employer.

If you cannot resolve the problem informally, you can complain to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

You should apply using the WRC’s online complaint form. You must make your complaint within 6 months of the dispute (disagreement) happening.

The time limit may be extended for a further 6 months, but only if you have a ‘reasonable cause’ which prevented you bringing your complaint within the normal time limit.

Read more about how to make a complaint, including details of the WRC adjudication process.

Find more information about annual leave from the Workplace Relations Commission's Information and Customer Service.