Public Holidays

March this year will include two public holidays, St Patrick's Day and Easter Monday, so how do employers correctly account for public holidays for their employee's?

Under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, all employees, regardless of their employment status, are entitled to some form of payment for a public holiday.

Full-time employees who qualify for public holiday benefit will be entitled to one of the following:

• A paid day off on the public holiday
• An additional day of annual leave
• An additional day's pay
• A paid day off within a month of the public holiday

Part-time employees can qualify for the full entitlement as listed above if they have worked 40 hours or more in the 5 weeks preceding the public holiday.

If a part-time employee does not normally work on the day the Public holiday falls, they can receive one-fifth of their normal weekly rate of pay as payment.

There are 9 Public Holidays in the Irish Calendar:
• New Year's Day (1st January)
• St. Patrick's Day (17th March)
• Easter Monday
• First Monday in May, June & August
• Last Monday in October
• Christmas Day (25th December)
• St. Stephen's Day (26th December)

A public holiday is sometimes called a bank holiday, but this is incorrect. Bank holidays are not provided for within the legislation as paid time off. For instance, Good Friday is not a public holiday and therefore there is no automatic or statutory entitlement to time off work on that day.

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