We often hear comments like “my employee is not entitled to that because he is part-time”, “this entitlement doesn’t apply because my employee is an agency worker”. The reality is that this is a misconception and all employees, no matter whether they are full-time, part-time, fixed term, casual, etc have entitlements.
We have compiled a small list to remind you of some of these entitlements:
- Every employee should receive a written statement of terms of employment within two months of starting work. There are specific items that must be included, some are obvious, such as the name and address of the employer. Others are not so obvious, for example, you must include the pay reference period (this might be a week, a fortnight, or more, but no longer than a month), disciplinary/dismissal procedures, details of paid leave (holidays, maternity leave, special leave, etc), period of notice to be given before terminating employment by the employer to the employee and by the employee to the employer, etc. This is just a sample of the clauses that the statement should include. For more information, you might find this link useful: https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/publications_forms/terms_of_employment_information_act_-_explanatory_booklet.pdf
- A part-time employee and a casual worker cannot be treated in a less favourable manner than a comparable full-time employee. A part-time employee should have a pro-rata entitlement related to the proportion of hours of work.
- All employees, whether full-time, part-time, fixed-term or casual have holidays and public holidays entitlements (though further restrictions apply to a part-time employees). They begin to accrue holidays from the day they commence employment, so if you have a full-time employee starting on a Friday, he is entitled to a paid day off even if the public holiday is only his second day working for you. When calculating holiday entitlements, all time worked, including overtime, qualifies for holiday entitlement.
- There are 3 methods to calculate holidays. If you are interested in finding out how they work, please don’t hesitate to contact us here: https://www.charteredaccountantsashbourne.ie/contact/
- The public holiday entitlement means the employee is entitled to the employer’s choice of the following:
- A paid day off on that day
- A paid day off within a month of that day
- An additional day of annual leave
- An additional day’s pay
The employer must notify the employee of his choice of benefit not later than 14 days before the public holiday.
- The maximum average working week is 48 hours. The employer must ensure that the employee doesn’t work in excess of an average of 48 hrs in each 7 day period. Some further restrictions apply for night workers, seasonal employees, etc
- Minimum wage in 2016 is €9.15 for an experienced adult worker.
This is not a complete list of your employees’ entitlements, but we hope it clears some of the misconceptions relating to employees entitlements.
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The blog does not purport to give any definitive taxation or professional advice on any matter. Any information contained herein is not a substitute for direct consultation with one of our professional team. We have made every attempt to ensure that the information contained herein is accurate, but we are not responsible for any errors or omissions. We do not represent that the information herein is comprehensive or complete in the sense that it discusses all issues of relevance to a particular situation. We do not accept responsibility or liability in any circumstances in respect of the accuracy or content of this information
