In accordance with the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, full-time employees in Northern Ireland are entitled to a minimum of 28 days of paid leave every year which may or may not include public / bank holidays. Any right for an employee to take paid leave on bank or public holidays should be detailed in the employee's terms of employment. The employee’s contract of employment should deal with whether public and bank holidays can be taken as paid leave or whether employees have the choice to work these dates at the normal pay rate. Some employers may choose to pay their employees overtime rates for working on bank or public holidays. However, there is no automatic statutory right to an enhanced rate of pay.

Employees with the contractual right to time off on bank and public holidays cannot be forced to work or disciplined for refusing to work on these days. However, an employee who does not have this contractual right to time off on bank and public holidays and refuses to work on these days could be subject to disciplinary action for unauthorised absence. In Northern Ireland, there are 10 bank holidays and public holidays. If an employer provides paid leave for an employee on a bank or public holiday, this may count towards the employee's minimum holiday entitlement depending on the terms included in their contract of employment.

For employees working part-time, it is important for employers to note that their annual leave should be calculated pro rata. Currently, this can be calculated as 5.6 times an employee's usual working week. By way of an example, this would equate to 22.4 days of annual leave for someone who works four days a week. Employers may choose to offer employees more annual leave days than is required under the legislation.

Legal Island Training Resources for Your Staff

HR Toolkit | eLearning Course

Are you responsible for overseeing the implementation of training for all employees in your organisation?
Legal Island has created an HR Toolkit that aims to provide comprehensive training to assist HR professionals in supporting line managers and employees throughout the employee journey. The suite of courses will offer practical advice to assist you in updating your processes and procedures and help you understand your legal obligations.

Click here to view our HR toolkit.