Public Holiday Entitlements over the Christmas Holidays 2014

The advice line is always busy this time of year with queries from employers about the public holidays over Christmas. The most important thing an employer can do first of all is to know the entitlements that each individual employee will attract. There are some common misconceptions about the Christmas public holidays. For example, many employers and employees can confuse Christmas Eve and the day after St. Stephen’s Day as public holidays; this is not the case are just days when the banks are closed. This is the first important point to make: don’t confuse Public Holidays with Bank Holidays! The 8^th of December, the traditional Christmas shopping day, also carries no statutory entitlements and is a Church holiday. The important dates for employers to be mindful of in respect of statutory public holiday entitlements are: Christmas Day (Thursday 25^th December), St. Stephens Day (Friday 26^th December) and New Year’s Day (Thursday 1^st of January 2015). Which employees are entitled to Public Holidays? It is important to remember that all employees are entitled to public holiday payments and there are only a few exceptions to this, as outlined below. It is particularly important to be mindful that employees will be entitled to public holiday entitlements even where they don’t work on the holiday and even where the holiday falls on a day that they never work. Which employees are not entitled to Public Holidays? The only circumstances where an employee is not entitled to public holiday benefits are:

• In the case of part-time employees, where they haven’t worked a total of 40 hours over the 5 weeks ending before the public holiday.
• Where the employee is absent in excess of 52 weeks due to an occupational illness or injury;
• Where the employee is absent in excess of 26 weeks by reason of non-occupational illness or injury;
• A period of lay-off that exceeds 13 weeks;
• An absence by reason of strike.
• Where the employee is on statutory Health and safety leave

So what are the Public Holiday Entitlements? As a general overview, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 requires employers to provide one of the following to the employee for any public holiday:

• a paid day off on the public holiday,
• a paid day off within a month of the public holiday,
• an additional day of annual leave in lieu,
• an additional day's pay (where the employee has worked on the holiday)

How do you calculate “a paid day off” and “an additional day’s pay”? This is the question that most commonly arises in respect of public holidays as these two entitlements are the ones most preferred by employers. From the outset, the first question the employer needs to ask, in respect of each employee, whether or not the employee worked on the holiday or would normally work on the holiday. According to S.I No.475 of 1997 – Organisation of Working Time Regulations, 1997; if an employee works the public holiday, or is normally rostered to work on the day the public holiday falls, that employee is entitled to a public holiday payment equivalent to their last working day before the public holiday. Conversely, if the employee does not work on the day of the public holiday, and they are not normally rostered to work on the day the public holiday falls, then they will be entitled to one fifth of their last normal weekly rate. The above sounds straight forward, however calculating public holidays can still be difficult, so below we have outlined some scenarios that you apply to your own workforce. What Happens if the Public Holiday Falls on a Day that the Employee Works or is Normally Rostered to Work? As above, if the public holiday falls on a day the employee works or is normally rostered to work then the employee is entitled to be paid “the equivalent of the hours they worked on the last working day before the holiday”. To simplify this, this calculation applies to an employee who either (a) works on the public holiday, or (b) would have worked that day had it not been a public holiday. If the employee falls into this category then the calculation is simple: what hours did they work on their last normal working day before the public holiday (excluding overtime)? This figure will be what the employee is entitled to for St. Patrick’s Day. Let’s look at an example:

• Christmas Day falls on Thursday 25 December and Thursday is a day the employee in question normally works.
• Their last normal working day before Christmas Day was Tuesday 23 December on which they worked 7 hours.
• Thus, the employee’s public holiday entitlement for Christmas Day is 7 hours pay.

This calculation is usually fairly set in stone for set hourly full-time employees as they would normally work the same hours every day. However, if the employee is part-time or variable hour particularly then the public holiday entitlement may vary from one public holiday to the next so ensure to take advice if you are uncertain. What Happens if the Public Holiday Falls on a Day that the Employee Does Not Work and it is a Day that the Employee Would Not Normally Work? If the employee doesn’t work on the public holiday itself and it is a day that they don’t normally work then they are entitled to be paid the equivalent of “one-fifth of their last normal working week”. To simplify this, this calculation applies to an employee who (a) did not work on the public holiday, and (b) does not normally work on the day the public holiday falls. If the employee falls into this category then the calculation is simple: they are entitled to one-fifth of the total hours they worked in their last normal working week before the public holiday. Let’s look at an example:

• Stephen’s Day falls on Friday 26 December and the employee doesn’t work on the holiday and they don’t normally work on Fridays.
• The employee worked 18 hours over the previous week, running from 15 December to 21 December.
• Thus, the employee would be entitled to one-fifth of 18 hours for the St. Stephen’s Day public holiday.
• This equals (1/5 of 18 hours) = 3.6 hours. Similarly, if they worked for 40 hours over that week then it would be (1/5 of 40 hours) = 8 hours.

Again, this calculation is usually fairly set in stone for set hourly full-time employees. However, if the employee is part-time or variable hour then the public holiday entitlement will likely vary from one public holiday to the next so ensure to take advice if you are uncertain. Let the advice line take the headache out of calculating the Christmas public holiday entitlement for you and call us on 01- 855 50 50.