The Complainant joined the Respondent security company in October 1976 and 41 years later, in 2017, he was in the role of a section sergeant. The Complainant earned €11.65 per hour, plus a weekly supervision allowance of €152.08 and an unsocial hours’ allowance of €13.97, bringing his weekly wages to €690.30.  At the hearing, the Complainant said that he generally worked 45 hours each week, although he sometimes worked more than this.  He also submitted that his regular weekly wages were €719.42.

In March 2017, the Complainant went out sick.  Three years later, he gave two weeks’ notice of his intention to resign and his employment ended on the 29th of March 2020.  He claimed that he was entitled to pay for holidays that accrued during the leave years 2018, 2019 and for the first quarter of 2020; in all, a total of 45 days.

The Respondent argued that the Complainant was only entitled to pay for the holidays that accrued in the 15 months before his employment ended, limiting his entitlement to holiday pay of 25 days.

In May 2020, the complainant wrote to the Respondent company and disputed how his entitlement to accrued holiday pay was calculated.  The Complainant highlighted that his contract of employment provided that he was entitled to six weeks’ holidays every year.  He claimed that, at the termination of his employment, his entitlement to accrued holiday pay should be based on his contractual entitlement of six weeks’ holidays and not the statutory entitlement of four weeks.  At the hearing, the Respondent conceded that the Complainant’s entitlement to pay in lieu of holidays accrued during his absence was based on the statutory entitlement of four weeks per year. The Complainant also maintained that in accordance the Organisation of Working Time Act, he should be entitled to pay for accrued holidays for 2018, 2019 and for the first quarter of 2020, up until the date of the termination of his employment on March 29th 2020.

The Respondent disputed the Complainant’s right to have his complaint adjudicated upon, as it was submitted in excess of the time limit allowed under the Workplace Relations Act.  However, the Adjudication officer decided to accept the Complainant’s reasonable cause for the delay. The Respondent submitted that the Complainant was not entitled to holidays that accrued over more than 15 months after he commenced his absence from work.  The Respondent’s position was that, having been paid for holidays accrued in 2019 and 2020, the Complainant received the holiday pay to which he is entitled.

The Adjudication Officer ruled that the Complainant was entitled to compensation for holidays not taken during the leave year in which his employment ended, and for the holidays not taken in 2019 and 2018. This amounted to a total of 45 days’ holidays not taken which accrued over a period of 27 months. The Adjudication Officer also found that the Complainant’s holiday pay should have been based on his normal weekly pay of 45 hours, of which, five hours should have been paid at time and a half, resulting in pay for 47.5 hours.

The Adjudication officer upheld the Complainant’s complaint and at the end of his employment with the Respondent, and ordered that the Complainant was entitled to payment of €6,474.78 in lieu of holidays not taken during 2018, 2019 and 2020, when he was absent due to illness.   
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2021/july/adj-00030160.html