Legalize / Ireland / Act

Holidays (Employees) Act , 1961

Type Act

Publication 1961-08-09

State In force

Source Irish Statute Book

Reform history JSON API

PART I Preliminary

1 Short title and commencement.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1961.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister may by order appoint.

2 Definitions generally.

2.—(1) In this Act—“the Act of 1936” means the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936;

“the Act of 1938” means the Shops (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1938;

“day” means, in relation to a person whose spell of work begins on one day and ends on the next, a period of twenty-four hours commencing at the time at which the spell of work begins;

“employ” means employ, under a contract of service (whether the contract is expressed or implied or is oral or in writing) or a contract of apprenticeship, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;

“industrial work” has the same meaning as in the Act of 1936;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

“month” means any period of thirty consecutive days;

“non-working day” means, in relation to a worker, a day on which the worker does not under his contract of service normally work;”

“offence under any section of this Act” includes an offence under any subsection of a section of this Act;

“shop” has the same meaning as that word had in the Act of 1938, prior to the enactment of the Shops (Conditions of Employment) (Amendment) Act, 1942;

“member of the staff”, in relation to a shop, has the same meaning as that expression has in the Act of 1938, as amended by Section 2 of the Shops (Conditions of Employment) (Amendment) Act 1942, and “shop work” has the same meaning as in the Act of 1938;

“short day” means, in relation to a worker, a day on which the worker under his contract of service normally works for less than a full day;

“week” means any period of seven consecutive days;

“working day” means, in relation to a worker, a day which—

(a) is a week-day, and

(b) is not—

(i) a public holiday,

(ii) a day within which any period of twenty-four consecutive hours of rest required to be allowed to the worker under any other enactment falls,

(iii) a non-working day, or

(iv) a short day.

(2) A person in the service of a local authority shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be employed by the local authority.

3 Workers.

3.—(1) In this Act—

“worker” means any person of the age of fourteen years or upwards who is employed, other than a person who is—

(a) one to whom articles or materials are given out to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented or repaired or adapted for sale in his own home or on other premises not under the control or management of the person who gave out the materials or articles,

(b) an agricultural worker to whom the Agricultural Workers (Holidays) Act, 1950 applies,

(c) the master or a member of the crew of any sea-going vessel (not being a barge or a hopper), whether publicly or privately owned, engaged in the transport of cargo or passengers,

(d) a lighthouse or lightship employee,

(e) a clergyman in Holy Orders,

(f) a member of any religious order or community,

(g) the wife, husband, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, step-father, step-mother, son, daughter, grandson, grand-daughter, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, half-brother or half-sister of his employer maintained by and dwelling in the house of his employer,

(h) a person who is employed by or under the State not being—

(i) a person so employed in an unestablished position to whom, by virtue of section 6 of the Act of 1936, that Act applies,

(ii) a person so employed in an unestablished positionas a porter, door-keeper, messenger, night watchman, charwoman, cleaner, or labourer or in other subordinate duties, or

(iii) a person so employed in an unestablished position as an artisan or other skilled labourer,

(i) employed as a fisherman, or

(j) member of any particular class of employed persons declared by an order made under this section to be an excluded class for the purposes of this section;

“domestic worker” means a person who—

(a) is a worker,

(b) is not an industrial worker,

(d) either—

(i) is entitled under his contract of service to free lodgings either in his employer's house or elsewhere, or

(ii) does work of a personal or domestic nature in or about the dwelling house of his employer:

“non-domestic worker” means a worker who is not a domestic worker;

“industrial worker” means a worker, other than an out-worker within the meaning of the Act of 1936, who does industrial work for a salary or wages or for the purposes of learning any trade or calling;

In paragraph (h) of this subsection “unestablished position” has the same meaning as in the Civil Service Commissioners Act, 1956.

(2) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, after consultation with such Ministers of State or employers' organisations and with such workers' organisations as he considers appropriate to be consulted, by order declare that any particular class (defined in such manner and by reference to such things asthe Minister thinks proper) of employed persons shall be an excluded class for the purposes of this section, and whenever any-such order is made then so long as such order is in force the class of employed persons to which such order relates shall be an excluded class for the purposes of this section.

(3) The Minister may, after consultation with such Ministers of State or employers' organisations and with such workers' organisations as he considers appropriate to be consulted, make regulations providing—

(a) that any person or any class or description (defined in such manner and by reference to such things as the Minister thinks proper) of persons shall be deemed to be a worker or workers for the purposes of this Act;

(b) that any worker or workers, whether as so defined in this section, or deemed to be such for the purposes of this Act by virtue of regulations made under this subsection, shall, for those purposes, be deemed to be a domestic worker or domestic workers or a non-domestic worker or non-domestic workers (as the case may be) as specified in the regulations.

Any regulations made by the Minister under this subsection may contain such supplemental and consequential provisions or modifications of the provisions of this Act as he considers necessary for giving full effect to the regulations.

(4) The Minister may revoke or amend any order made under this section (including this subsection).

4 “Employment year” and “employment half-year”.

4.—(1) In this Act—

“employment year” when used in relation to a worker, means a period of three hundred and sixty-five days (excluding any day which is the 29th day of February) commencing on the day on which the worker last entered the employment in relation to which the expression is used or on any anniversary of that day;

“the first half”, when used in relation to an employment year of a domestic worker, means a period of one hundred and eighty-three days commencing on the first day of the employment year;

“the second half”, when used in relation to an employment year of a domestic worker, means so much of the employment year as is not included in the first half thereof.

Where a worker entered on employment on the 29th day of February, he shall for the purposes of the interpretation of the definition of “employment year”, be deemed to have entered that employment on the next following day.

(2) Where—

(a) the ownership of any business, whether carried on for profit or gain or not, is transferred by act of the parties or by operation of law during the currency of an employment year of any worker who immediately before the transfer was employed by the person carrying on the business, and

(b) the worker continues after the transfer to be employed by the person (in this subsection referred to as the new employer) to whom the ownership is transferred, the following provisions shall have effect—

(i) the worker shall, for the purposes of this Act (including subsection (1) of this section but excluding section 9 (in so far as it relates to rights of non-domestic workers in respect of public holidays) of this Act in respect of any public holidays previous to the transfer), be deemed to have been in the employment of the new employer as on and from the beginning of the employment year;

(ii) if the worker has been allowed before the transfer annual leave or, in case the worker is a domestic worker, annual leave or semi-annual leave during the employment year, the annual leave or semi-annual leave shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to have been allowed by the new employer.

(3) In this section “business” includes any profession, office, establishment or trade of whatsoever kind.

5 Meaning of “a whole holiday”.

5.—A person shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to allow a worker employed by him a whole holiday on a particular day if, but only if, he does not permit the worker to do on that day any work for him.

6 Expenses.

6.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

7 Repeals and consequential amendment.

7.—(1) Section 7 of the Act of 1936 is hereby repealed.

(2) Sections 28, sections 30 to 32 inclusive, and sections 36 to 39 inclusive of the Act of 1938 are hereby repealed.

(3) The Holidays (Employees) Act, 1939 is hereby repealed.

(4) Subsection (1) of section 49 of the Act of 1936 is hereby amended by the insertion of “within the meaning of the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1961” after “public holiday”.

PART II Public holidays

8 Public Holidays in respect of all workers.

8.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, each of the following days shall, in respect of all workers, be for the purposes of this Act, a public holiday;

(a) Christmas Day when it falls on a weekday or, when it falls on a Sunday, the 27th day of December,

(b) St. Stephen's Day when it falls on a weekday or, when it falls on a Sunday, the next following Monday,

(d) Easter Monday, Whit Monday, and the first Monday in August,

(2) Whenever in any year a day is appointed under the Public Holidays Act, 1924, to be a bank holiday instead of a day mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, the day so appointed shall in that year be deemed to be substituted throughout that subsection for the day so mentioned.

(3) The employer of any worker may substitute for any public holiday (other than Christmas Day or St. Patrick's Day) falling in a calendar year either—

(a) the Church holiday falling in the calendar year immediately before the public holiday by giving to the worker not less than fourteen days before the Church holiday notice of his intention to effect the substitution, or

(b) the Church holiday falling in that calendar year immediately after the public holiday or, if the public holiday is a day which is a public holiday by virtue of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, the 1st day of January next following by giving to the worker not less than fourteen days before the public holiday notice of his intention to effect the substitution,

and whenever such notice is given, the substituted Church holiday shall in respect of the worker be a public holiday for the purposes of this Act instead of the day for which it is so substituted.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) of this section each of the following days shall be a Church holiday:

(i) the 1st day of January, except when it falls on a Sunday,

(ii) Ascension Thursday,

(iii) the Feast of Corpus Christi,

(iv) the 15th day of August, except when it falls on a Sunday,

(v) the 1st day of November, except when it falls on a Sunday,

(vi) the 8th day of December, except when it falls on a Sunday.

(5) The Minister may by order declare any of the days mentioned in subsection (1) of this section not to be a public holiday for the purposes of this Act and may appoint any day to be a public holiday for the purposes of this Act and, on such order being made, the day so appointed shall be deemed to be a public holiday for the purposes of this Act.

(6) The Minister may by order appoint a day to be a Church holiday for the purposes of this Act either in substitution for or in addition to a day mentioned in subsection (4) of this section and, on such order being made, the day so appointed shall be deemed to be a Church holiday for the purposes of this Act.

(7) The notice mentioned in subsection (3) of this section shall be in writing and may be given to any person by handing a copy thereof to him personally or by posting a copy thereof in a conspicuous position in the place where he is employed.

(8) In this Act “public holiday”, when used in relation to any worker, shall be construed in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section.

9 Rights of workers in respect of public holidays.

9.—(1) Where—

(a) a worker is in the employment of a person on a public holiday,

(b) the worker has worked for such person for the qualifying period of work for that worker defined in subsection (8) of this section at any time during the period of five weeks immediately preceding the public holiday, and

(i) the worker has been allowed by such person a whole holiday on the public holiday, or

(ii) the public holiday occurs on a non-working day or on a short day and the worker does not work for such person on the public holiday,

such person shall pay to the worker in respect of the public holiday a sum equivalent to a full day's pay.

(2) Where—

(a) a worker is in the employment of a person on a public holiday,

such person shall,

(i) allow to that worker a compensatory holiday in lieu of the public holiday, or

(ii) pay to the worker in respect of the public holiday a sum equivalent to twice the amount of a full day's pay.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2) of this section a person shall be deemed to have allowed the worker a compensatory holiday in lieu of a public holiday if, but only if he

(a) allows the worker a whole holiday in lieu of a public holiday on a working day before the expiration of one month after the public holiday and pays to the worker in respect thereof a sum equivalent to the amount of a full day's pay, or

(b) allows the worker at any time during the employment year of the worker within which the public holiday occurs a whole holiday on the working day next following the expiration of the worker's annual leave and pays to the worker in respect thereof a sum equivalent to the amount of a full day's pay.

(4) Where—

(a) a worker is in the employment of a person on a public holiday,

(d) the worker has not received in respect of the holiday a sum equivalent to twice the amount of a full day's pay, and

(e) the employment of the worker is terminated before he has been allowed a compensatory holiday in lieu of the public holiday,

such person shall pay to the worker on such termination in addition to any wages then due to him a sum equivalent to a full day's pay.

(5) Where—

(a) a worker in the employment of a person is allowed by such person a compensatory holiday in lieu of a public holiday, and

(b) the worker ceases to be in the employment of such person before the public holiday occurs,

such person may not deduct from the wages due to the worker any sum in respect of the compensatory holiday.

(6) Where—

(a) a worker in the employment of a person has worked for such person for the qualifying period of work for that worker defined in subsection (8) of this section at any time during the period of five weeks immediately preceding a public holiday, and

(b) the services of the worker with such person are terminated by such person before the public holiday,

such person shall upon such termination, pay to the worker, in addition to any wages then due to him,

(i) a sum equivalent to a full day's pay, or

(ii) if such holiday was Christmas Day, a sum equivalent to a full day's pay in respect of that day, and an additional such sum in respect of St. Stephen's Day.

(7) Where—

(b) a day (in this subsection referred to as the substituted day) is substituted under section 8 of this Act for the appointed holiday,

(d) the services of the worker with such person are terminated by such person before the substituted day,

such person shall upon such termination, pay to the worker, in addition to any wages then due to him, a sum equivalent to a full day's pay.

In this subsection “appointed holiday” means a day which is a public holiday by virtue of subsection (1) or subsection (2) of section 8 of this Act.

(8) The qualifying periods of work for the purposes of subsections (1), (2), (4), (6) and (7) of this section shall be as follows:

(a) in the case of an industrial worker under eighteen years of age, or a worker under eighteen years of age who is employed in mining, not less than one hundred and twenty hours,

(b) in the case of a domestic worker, not less than twenty-five days, and

In the calculation of the qualifying periods of work defined in this subsection days of annual leave shall be included and a worker shall be deemed to have worked on each day of his annual leave the normal number of hours which he would have worked on that day under his contract of service.

This document does not substitute the official text published in the Irish Statute Book. We accept no responsibility for any inaccuracies arising from the transcription of the original into this format.