Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997
ORGANISATION OF WORKING TIME ACT
GENERAL
The Organisation of Working Time Act sets out statutory
rights for employees in respect of rest, maximum working
time and holidays. These new rights apply either by law as set
out in the Act, in regulations made under the Act or through
legally binding collective agreements. These agreements may
vary the times at which rest is taken or vary the averaging
period over which weekly working time is calculated.
You are not covered by the rest and maximum working time
rules if you are a member of the Defence Forces, the Garda
Siochana, a junior hospital doctor, a transport employee, if
you work at sea, if you control your own working hours or if
you are a family employee working on a farm or private house.
Otherwise, if you are an employee, you are generally covered
by the following rest and maximum working time
entitlements.
MAXIMUM WEEKLY WORKING TIME
From 1st March 1998 the new maximum average working
week is 48 hours. Averaging may be balanced out over a 4, 6 or
12 month period depending on the circumstances. The
provision relating to the 48 hour week operates as follows;
48 hour net maximum working week can be averaged
according to the following rules:-
- For employees generally - 4 months
- For employees where work is subject to seasonality, a
foreseeable surge in activity or where employees are directly
involved in ensuring continuity of service or production - 6
months
- For all employees who enter into a collective agreement
with their employers which is approved by the Labour
Court - 12 months
REST
From 1st March 1998 every employee has a general
entitlement to:
- 11 hours daily rest per 24 hour period
- one period of 24 hours rest per week preceded by a daily
rest period (11 hours)
- Rest breaks - 15 minutes where up to 4½ hours have been
worked; 30 minutes where up to 6 hours have been worked
which may include the first break.
- Shop Employees whose hours of work include the hours
11.30am - 2.30pm must after 6 hours work be allowed a
break of one hour which must commence between the
hours 11.30am - 2.30pm.
These rest breaks and intervals may be varied if there is a
collective agreement in place approved by the Labour Court
or if a regulation has been made for your sector. If there are
variations in rest times and rest intervals under agreement or
in the permitted sectors, equivalent compensatory rest must
be available to the employee.
NIGHT WORKERS
Night time is the period between midnight and 7 a.m. the
following day.
Night workers are employees who normally work at least 3
hours of their daily working time during night time and the
annual number of hours worked at night equals or exceeds
50% of annual working time
Maximum Night Working Time
From 1st March 1998
- for nightworkers generally - 48 hours per week averaged
over 2 months or a longer period specified in a collective
agreement which must be approved by the Labour Court.
- for nightworkers whose work involved special hazards or
heavy physical or mental strain - an absolute limit of 8
hours in a 24 hour period during which they perform
night work.
Definitions, Exceptions and
Other Features of the Working Time Act
Working time is net working time i.e. exclusive of breaks, on
call or stand-by time.
Exceptional or Unforeseeable Circumstances: The Act
permits exemption from the rest provisions if there are
exceptional, unusual and unforeseeable circumstances.
Equivalent compensatory rest must be taken within a
reasonable period of time.
Shift and Split Shift Working: The Act provides for
automatic exemption from the rest provisions for shift
workers when they change shift and for workers on split
shifts. Equivalent compensatory rest must be taken within a
reasonable period of time.
Exemption by Regulation: Categories of employees in the
sectors set out in the Organisation of Working Time
(Exemption) Regulations may, subject to receiving equivalent
compensatory rest, be exempted from the rest provisions of
the Act. Certain regulations (i.e. S.I. 20 of 1998 Exemption of
Transport Activities, and S.I. 52 of 1998 Exemption of Civil
Protection Services) provide exemptions from the rest and
maximum working week provisions of the Act without a
requirement for equivalent compensatory rest.
Exemption by Collective Agreement: Any sector or
business may be exempted from the statutory rest times by
collective agreement, subject to equivalent compensatory rest
being made available to the employee. Collective agreements
to vary the rest times may be drawn up between management
and a trade union or other representative staff body in any
business, organisation or enterprise.
Some of the exemptions above are subject to equivalent
compensatory rest being made available to the
employee. This means that, although employers may
operate a flexible system of working, employees must
not lose out on rest. In these circumstances rest may be
postponed temporarily and taken within a reasonable
period of time. A list of the sectors exempted by
regulation and guidelines on equivalent compensatory
rest can be found in a code of practice on compensatory
rest produced by the Labour Relations Commission.
HOLIDAYS
Holiday pay is earned against time worked. All employees,
full-time, part-time, temporary or casual earn holiday
entitlements from the time work is commenced.
(a) 4 working weeks in a leave year in which the employee
works at least 1,365 hours (unless it is a leave year in
which he or she changes employment).
(b) 1/ 3 of a working week per calendar month that the
employee works at least 117 hours.
(c) 8% of the hours an employee works in a leave year (but
subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks).
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
The Organisation of Working Time Act provides the
following nine public holidays:
a) Christmas Day,
b) St. Stephen’s Day,
c) St. Patrick’s Day,
d) Easter Monday, the first Monday in May, the first
Monday in June and the first Monday in August,
e) the last Monday in October,
f) the 1st of January.
In respect of each public holiday, an employee is entitled to
either:
(a) a paid day off on the holiday or
(b) a paid day off within a month or
(c) an extra day’s annual leave or
(d) an extra day’s pay
as the employer may decide.
If the public holiday falls on a day on which the employee
normally works, the employee is entitled to a paid day off for
the day.
If the public holiday falls on a day on which the employee
does not normally work, the employee is entitled to one fifth
of his/her normal weekly wage for the day or to either (b) or
(c) above as the employer may decide.
If the employee is asked to work on the public holiday, the
employee is entitled to (b) (c) or (d) above as the employer
may decide.
There is no service requirement in respect of public holidays
for whole time employees. Part time employees qualify for
public holidays entitlement provided they have worked at
least 40 hours during the five weeks ending on the day before
a public holiday.
(Note this Act refers to 'public holidays' not 'bank
holidays'. Not every official bank holiday is a public holiday
though in practice most of them coincide).
SUNDAY PREMIUM
If not already included in the rate of pay, employees are
entitled to supplementary payment for Sunday which will be
equivalent to the closest applicable collective agreement
which applies to the same or similar employment and which
provides for a Sunday premium.
The premium can be in the form of:
- added payment
- time off in lieu
- a portion of shift premium
- unsocial hours premium.
ZERO HOURS
This feature of the legislation covers situations where, for
example, an employee is sent home if things are quiet or is
requested to be available for work and is not, on the day asked
to work. Where an employee suffers a loss by not working
hours he/she was requested to work or be available to work,
the zero hours provisions of the Act ensure that he/she is
compensated for 25% of the time which he/she is required to
be available or 15 hours whichever is the lesser.
e.g. If an employee’s contract of employment operates to
require the employee to be available for 48 hours in a week, he
/ she will be entitled to a minimum payment of 12 hours even
if not required to work that week. Or if an employee is asked
to be available to work 8 hours and is not called into work
he/she will be entitled to a minimum payment of 2 hours.
RECORDS
Employers are obliged to keep records of holidays and public
holidays for a period of 3 years. These records must be
available for inspection by Labour Inspectors of the
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Records
should also be maintained to show as evidence in the event of
a Rights Commissioner or Labour Court investigation of an
employee’s complaint.
PENALTIES
A person found guilty of offences relating to failure to keep
records, double employment, obstruction of inspectors or
non-compliance with regulations outworkers may face fines
of up to €1904.61 (£1,500) and an extra €634.87 (£500) a day
for a continuing offence.
Employers may face compensation claims for amounts up to
2 years of an employee’s salary for breaches of other
provisions of the Act. Such amounts may be determined by
the Rights Commissioner and the Labour Court.
