Annual leave in Ireland: three ways to calculate the four weeks you’re owed

• Statutory annual leave is a minimum of four of your normal working weeks in a leave year (your contract can be more generous).
• OTWA s.19 uses three calculation routes: 1,365 hours → 4 weeks; one-third of a working week for each month with at least 117 hours; or 8% of hours worked (capped at 4 weeks).
• If more than one route applies and the results differ, the greater entitlement wins.
• After eight or more months worked in the leave year, you are entitled to an unbroken two-week block (subject to certain agreements).
• Holiday pay is due in advance at the normal weekly rate, or a 13-week average if pay varies (S.I. 475/1997).
• If leave is wrong, raise it locally first, then a WRC complaint within 6 months (extendable by another 6 for reasonable cause). Irish law only: this is not UK holiday law.

Under section 19 OTWA, an employee is entitled to paid annual leave equal to:

(a) 4 working weeks in a leave year in which they work at least 1,365 hours (this route does not apply in a leave year in which they change employment); or

(b) one-third of a working week for each month in the leave year in which they work at least 117 hours; or

(c) 8% of the hours they work in a leave year, subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks.

The Act then provides that if more than one of those paragraphs applies and the periods are not identical, the annual leave due is equal to whichever period is the greater.

A “working week” means the number of days (or the pattern of hours) you usually work in a week. So four weeks for a three-day-a-week worker is four of their weeks, not twenty Monday-to-Friday days. Citizens Information and the WRC both stress that full-time, part-time, temporary and casual staff earn leave from the start of employment.

The statutory leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March, though many employers use a calendar year for admin. That choice does not cut your statutory minimum.

Hours that count toward entitlement

When hours are counted for leave, employers should include time on annual leave itself and on certain protected leave. Citizens Information and the WRC list accrual continuing during certified sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, adoptive leave, parental leave, parent’s leave, force majeure leave, and the first 13 weeks of carer’s leave. Missing those hours from the calculator is a common way Method (a) or (b) is wrongly shut out.

Unbroken two weeks

If you work eight or more months in the leave year, your annual leave must include an unbroken period of two weeks, subject to employment regulation orders, registered employment agreements, collective agreements, or an agreement between you and your employer (OTWA s.19(3)).

The figures below are illustrations based on the three OTWA methods and sample pay rates. They are not adjudicated awards. Always convert leave into your normal working week.

Method (a): 1,365 hours → four working weeks

Illustration. Aoife works a fixed 39-hour week, €18.50 per hour, for a full leave year without changing jobs.

• Hours in year (approx.): 39 × 52 = 2,028 hours (well above 1,365).
• Method (a): 4 working weeks.
• At her normal weekly pay: 39 × €18.50 = €721.50 per week of leave, paid in advance when she takes the time.

If she only reached 1,200 hours in the same leave year and stayed with the same employer, Method (a) would not open. You would still run Methods (b) and (c).

Method (b): one-third of a week per month with 117+ hours

Illustration. Conor usually works five days a week. In ten calendar months he works at least 117 hours; in two quieter months he falls short.

• Qualifying months: 10
• Entitlement: 10 × (1/3 working week) = 3⅓ working weeks (about 16⅔ days if his week is five days).
• If his normal weekly pay is €650, roughly 3.33 × €650 ≈ €2,165 of holiday pay for that entitlement (paid as he takes the leave, not as a lump “bonus”).

Method (b) often matters for staff with seasonal peaks: months above 117 hours build leave even when the yearly hour total never hits 1,365.

Method (c): 8% of hours worked (max four weeks)

Illustration. Siobhán is part-time. She works 900 hours in the leave year. Her usual week is 20 hours at €16 per hour (€320 per week).

• 8% of 900 = 72 hours of leave.
• In working weeks: 72 ÷ 20 = 3.6 weeks (under the four-week cap).
• Holiday pay for that leave, at her normal weekly rate, is on the order of 3.6 × €320 = €1,152 across the leave she takes.

Citizens Information notes that part-time leave is generally worked with Method 3 (the 8% route). That does not erase the greater-of rule if another method yields more.

When methods clash: the greater period wins

Illustration. Same leave year, same employer, no job change.

• (a) 1,400 ≥ 1,365 → 4.0 weeks
• (b) 9 × 1/3 → 3.0 weeks
• (c) 8% of 1,400 = 112 hours → 112 ÷ 35 ≈ 3.2 weeks

Here Method (a) is the greatest, so the statutory entitlement is four working weeks, not 3.2. An employer who only ever applies 8% because “everyone is on pro rata” can understate leave for staff who clear 1,365 hours.

Flip the facts: 1,100 hours, 11 months above 117 hours, 25-hour week.

• (a) does not apply (under 1,365; and anyway (a) is blocked if they changed jobs mid-year).
• (b) 11 × 1/3 ≈ 3.67 weeks
• (c) 8% of 1,100 = 88 hours → 88 ÷ 25 = 3.52 weeks

Method (b) wins. That is the statutory design: compare, then take the larger.

Leave is not only days on a calendar. OTWA and S.I. No. 475/1997 (Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay For Holidays) Regulations) set how pay is fixed.

In plain terms, as summarised by Citizens Information and the WRC:

• Holiday pay must be paid in advance.
• If your pay is a fixed time rate, salary or other non-varying rate, the normal weekly rate is the sum paid for your normal weekly hours last worked before the leave starts (including regular non-varying bonuses/allowances, excluding overtime pay, per the Regulations).
• If your pay is not calculated wholly that way (for example commission or fluctuating earnings), the normal weekly rate is the average weekly pay (excluding overtime pay) over the 13 weeks ending immediately before the leave begins (or, if you worked no time in that window, over the 13 weeks ending on the last day you did work).

Do not invent a home-made “rolled-up” percentage on every hourly rate and assume it replaces proper leave pay. Official guidance points to the Regulations and to WRC / Citizens Information explanations, not to informal payroll habits.

On leaving a job, unused statutory leave is generally paid as money in lieu. While you are still employed, paying cash instead of giving the minimum leave is not how the Act is meant to work.

Keep what you can: contracts, rosters, clock-in exports, payslips showing “holidays”, emails about refused leave, and a simple hour tally for the leave year. Employers must keep working-time and leave records under OTWA; gaps in their paperwork often matter in a dispute.

Steps that usually make sense:

1. Ask HR or payroll, in writing, which OTWA method they used and for a breakdown of hours (including protected leave hours that should count).
2. Recalculate all three methods yourself and show the greater figure.
3. If it stays stuck, complain to the Workplace Relations Commission. Citizens Information: complain within 6 months of the dispute; the limit may extend by a further 6 months only for reasonable cause. Use the WRC online complaint form. Mediation may be offered; otherwise an Adjudication Officer decides. Appeals from WRC adjudication typically go to the Labour Court.

This article is about Irish statutory leave and the WRC. UK Working Time Regulations, ACAS early conciliation, and Employment Tribunals do not decide OTWA annual leave in the Republic.

• Only running 8% for everyone, even where Method (a) or (b) is larger.
• Ignoring the 1,365-hour gate for people who clearly cleared it, or applying Method (a) in a year they changed employment when the Act says that route does not apply.
• Dropping months that hit 117 hours because overtime was “informal” or unpaid on the roster.
• Excluding certified sick leave or maternity (and the other protected periods listed by Citizens Information / WRC) from the hour count used for entitlement.
• Confusing public holidays with annual leave: public holidays are a separate OTWA entitlement.
• Mis-sizing the working week: four weeks for a 3-day week is not twenty standard office days.
• Wrong holiday pay: fixed weekly rate ignored, or a 13-week average skipped when pay varies, contrary to S.I. 475/1997 and official summaries.
• No unbroken fortnight after eight-plus months without a valid agreement that lawfully adjusts timing.
• Late challenge: waiting past the 6-month WRC window without a documented reason for extension.

If your balance looks light, the useful work is boring and powerful: rebuild the leave-year hour total, test all three OTWA methods, and keep a paper trail for payroll or the WRC.

Paye Mes Heures can help you organise hours and prepare that file. Be clear about scope: the product is strongest where the French/Belgian engines are mature; for Ireland, treat any estimate as a working aid against OTWA s.19 and your own records, not as a substitute for WRC advice or a solicitor. Cross-check figures with Citizens Information and the WRC annual leave pages before you escalate.

• Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, section 19 (Irish Statute Book): https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1997/act/20/section/19
• S.I. No. 475/1997 - Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay For Holidays) Regulations, 1997: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1997/si/475/made/en/print
• Citizens Information - Annual leave: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment-rights-and-conditions/leave-and-holidays/annual-leave/
• Workplace Relations Commission - Annual Leave: https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/what_you_should_know/leave/annual-leave/annual_leave1.html