Conditions of Employment Act, 1936

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Right of worker to annual leave.

24.—(1) Every employer shall allow to each worker in his employment in any industrial undertaking a period of not less than six consecutive days leave (in this Act referred to as annual leave) in every complete employment year of such worker during which he has been continuously in the employment of such employer and has worked in such employment not less than eighteen hundred hours.

(2) Where a worker employed by an employer in an industrial undertaking ceases, at any time other than the end of an employment year of such worker, to be in the employment of such employer, such employer shall either—

(a) allow such worker, before such cesser, six days annual leave in respect of the portion of such employment year during which he was so employed, or

(b) pay such worker, at such cesser—

(i) one day's pay (calculated at the rate which would be applicable if such day were a day of annual leave allowed immediately before such cesser) in respect of every complete period of two months in the said portion of such employment year during which he has worked not less than three hundred hours, and

(ii) one day's pay (calculated as aforesaid) in respect of the period (if any) in the said portion of such employment year which is less than two months but not less than one month and during which he has worked for not less than one hundred and fifty hours.

(3) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he so thinks proper, by order make regulations varying, in respect of all or any particular classes or class of workers, all or any of the periods of eighteen hundred hours, three hundred hours, and one hundred and fifty hours mentioned in sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section by substituting for such periods or period such other periods or period as the Minister shall think proper, and whenever any such regulations are in force the said sub-sections shall have effect, in respect of the workers or the classes or class of workers to which such regulations apply, as if the said periods or such of them as are affected by such regulations were varied in the manner stated in such regulations.

(4) No Sunday nor public holiday shall be reckoned as a day of annual leave but if a Sunday or public holiday intervene between days of annual leave such days shall be deemed to be consecutive notwithstanding such intervention.

(5) It shall not be lawful for any worker, during any period of annual leave to which he is entitled under this section, to do for reward any industrial work, and if any worker does any industrial work in contravention of this sub-section he shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

(6) Where a worker who is a member of the Reserve Force of the Defence Forces of Saorstát Eireann is absent from his employment for the purpose of attending and performing his duty as such member at any initial training, annual training, or test mobilisation, such worker shall, for the purpose of reckoning any period of employment or of continuous employment within the meaning of this section, be deemed to have been in his said employment during his said absence, and accordingly the period of his said absence shall for the purposes of this section be reckoned in the said period of employment or continuous employment.

(7) Where the ownership of an industrial undertaking is transferred by act of the parties or operation of law, a worker who is employed in such undertaking immediately before and immediately after such transfer shall be entitled to reckon, for the purposes of this section, the period of his continuous employment in such undertaking beginning before and ending at such transfer and the period of such continuous employment beginning at and continuing after such transfer as one uninterrupted period of continuous employment in such undertaking notwithstanding such transfer.

(8) This section shall apply to the employment year current at the commencement of this Act of every worker who, at such passing, is in the employment of an employer in an industrial undertaking, and this section shall have effect in respect of such employment year and such worker as if this section had been in force at the beginning of such employment year, but subject to the modifications that—

(a) if such employment year expires within one month after the commencement of this Act, such employer shall be deemed to have complied with this section if he allows to such worker, not later than three months after the expiration of such employment year, such annual leave as such worker may be entitled to under this section in respect of such employment year, and

(b) if such employer shall, before the commencement of this Act, have allowed to such worker in such employment year one or more days' leave which would be annual leave for the purposes of this section but for the fact that such days were not consecutive or were less than six or were both not consecutive and less than six, the said leave so allowed shall be deemed to be annual leave for the purposes of this section and such worker shall only be entitled in respect of such employment year to such number (if any) of consecutive days' annual leave after the commencement of this Act as is equal to the number (if any) of days by which the said leave so allowed is less than six.

(9) In the application of this section to workers who are young persons, the several periods of fifteen hundred hours, two hundred and fifty hours and one hundred and twenty hours shall respectively be substituted throughout this section for the several periods of eighteen hundred hours, three hundred hours and one hundred and fifty hours, and this section shall have effect in relation to such workers accordingly.

(10) In this section and the two next following sections of this Act the expression “employment year” in relation to any worker means a period of one year beginning on the day on which such worker last entered the employment in relation to which the expression is used or on an anniversary of that day.

(11) If any employer fails to pay to any worker any moneys which become payable to such worker under this section such worker may recover such moneys as a simple contract debt from such employer.

(12) If any employer fails to allow annual leave to any worker in contravention of this section he shall be guilty of an offence under this section.