An employee's claim for a 12 hour public holiday top up failed because the WRC held that an 8 hour top up correctly reflected the statutory entitlement where his 12 hour night shift spanned two calendar days.

The Complainant was employed as a security officer working 12-hour night shifts from 20:00 to 08:00 under a two-week roster pattern. He argued that, as his normal shift was 12 hours, his statutory public holiday top-up should also have been calculated on the basis of 12 hours rather than the 8-hour top-up paid by the Respondent. He relied on Regulation 5(1)(a) of the Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay for Holidays) Regulations 1997 and maintained that “normal daily hours” meant the full 12-hour shift. He also claimed entitlement to the applicable night-shift premium. The Complainant identified a number of public holidays in respect of which he alleged underpayment and later submitted a 2026 payslip showing a 12-hour bank holiday payment at double time but only an 8-hour top-up. He maintained that this demonstrated the Respondent’s continuing failure to pay the correct statutory public holiday entitlement.

The Respondent maintained that the Complainant had been correctly paid his statutory public holiday entitlement. It explained that the Complainant normally worked from 20:00 to 08:00 and that his shift therefore straddled two calendar days. Where part of the shift fell on a public holiday, the employee was paid double time for the hours actually worked during that calendar day, together with an additional 8-hour top-up at the basic rate. The Respondent argued that this satisfied the statutory entitlement to an additional day’s pay under section 21 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. It disputed the Complainant’s argument that a 12-hour shift automatically generated a 12-hour statutory top-up. The Respondent accepted that errors had occurred in the payment of the unsocial-hours premium under the applicable Employment Regulation Order but stated that those errors were being rectified by backdated payments.

The Adjudicating Officer held that the complaint was not well founded. The central issue was the interpretation of s.21 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and Regulation 5 of S.I. No. 475/1997. The Officer found that the statutory unit of measurement was a “day” and that the Complainant’s 12-hour shift crossed two calendar days. As the shift ran from 20:00 to 08:00, only the eight hours between midnight and 08:00 fell within the public holiday itself. Those eight hours were treated as the normal daily hours referable to the public holiday for the purposes of Regulation 5(1)(a). The Officer also relied on the Complainant’s own payslip, which showed an 8-hour public holiday top-up. The unsocial-hours premium error had been acknowledged and corrected by backdated payment. Accordingly, no further compensation was considered and the complaint failed.

Employers should:

1. Ensure that public holiday entitlements are calculated by reference to the statutory framework rather than simply by reference to the total duration of a rostered shift. Where a shift crosses midnight, payroll systems should distinguish between hours worked on the ordinary calendar day and hours worked on the public holiday itself.
2. Maintain clear payroll records showing how public holiday pay has been calculated. Payslips should distinguish ordinary pay, public holiday premiums, top-up payments and any night or unsocial-hours allowances.
3. Ensure that payroll errors are corrected promptly and transparently. Employers should audit payroll systems regularly, particularly where Employment Regulation Orders or sectoral rules change. 
   

The full case can be found here.