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How much Leave are Employees Entitled to Annually?
Published on: 04/07/2023
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Chris Fullerton
Chris Fullerton

How much Leave are Employees Entitled to Annually?

With the summer holidays beginning, employers can expect the next few months to be filled with annual leave requests from their employees. It is therefore important for employers to refresh their understanding regarding the annual leave entitlements afforded to their employees.

The Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 set out the minimum annual leave entitlement for employees. This entitlement is available to all workers above school leaving age – those on temporary or permanent contracts, those employed on a full-time or part-time basis and extends to those who are agency workers. These workers have the minimum entitlement to 5.6 weeks’ paid leave each year which is capped at 28 days for an employee who works five day a week.

Given that this is a minimum statutory entitlement, employers can choose to offer more as part of an employee’s terms of employment. However, an employer is not allowed to offer less than the statutory minimum. An employee has no right to additional holiday, even if unpaid, unless their terms of employment provide for such.

Employees should ensure that enough notice is given to their employers when requesting annual leave. The notice period must be twice as long as the period of leave requested and, equally, the employer can refuse an annual leave request by giving notice at least as long as the leave requested by the employee.

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 04/07/2023