Working Time Directive
What is the Working Time Directive ?
The Organisation of Working Time Act sets out statutory rights for employees and stringent regulations for employers.
The new legislation requires employers who do not have a way of recording employee working hours electronically to complete a special form called the OWT1 on a daily and weekly basis.
download the OWT1 form
The records that must be kept should contain the following:
- Name and address of each employee, his/her PPS Number and a brief statement of his/her duties as an employee
- Days and total hours worked in each week by each employee concerned
- Any days and hours of leave in each week granted by way of annual leave or in respect of a public holiday to each employee and the payment made to each employee in respect of that leave
- Any additional day's pay
| Maximum Weekly Working Time |
- 48 hours net maximum working week, averaged over 4 months for general employees
- 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 4.5 hours have been worked; 30 minutes where up to 6 hours have been worked which may include the first break
Holiday pay is earned against time worked.
- 4 working weeks in a leave year in which the employee worked at least 1,365 hours
- 1/3 of a working week per calendar month that the employee works at least 117 hours
- 8% of the hours an employee works in a leave year (subject to a max. of 4 working weeks)
The Working Time Act provides the following nine public holidays:
- Christmas Day
- St. Stephen's Day
- St. Patrick's Day
- Easter Monday
- the first Monday in May
- the first Monday in June
- the first Monday in August
- the last Monday in October
- 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
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.
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.
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 €1,904.61 (£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.
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment - Employment Rights Publications
Irish Statute Book - ORGANISATION OF WORKING TIME ACT, 1997
Information on Public Services - Employment Working Time (Records)
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