The leave entitlements and rest periods of employees are governed by the Organization of Working Time Act,1997 which regulates employees rights in relation to maternity leave, paternity leave,sick pay and holiday entitlements.
How working time is defined is important in this regard for example what is the position for employees who are on call. This appears from case law to require that the employee be on call in a particular place for it to count as working time;if the employee has to be on standby but can go home for example it has been held by the courts that this is not working time. This is particularly for doctors, for example, but the same principle applies to all workers.
It is worth noting that the Organization of Working Time Act does not apply to the defence forces or gardai or to certain other employees such as those working in an emergency situation, people working at sea and most importantly does not apply to people who can set their own working hours.
Rest Periods
An employee is entitled to a rest period of at least 11 hours in every work period of 24 hours. While at work an employee is entitled to a 15 minute break every 4.5 hours and an employee can not be obliged to work for more than 6 hours without a 30 minute break.
In a 7 day period an employee is entitled to a rest period of at least 24 hours and employees who are required to work on Sunday must be compensated by extra pay or paid time off or some other arrangement arrived at with the employee.
An employee can not be expected to work in excess of 48 hours per week; note that this is an average period and the average is calculated over 4-6 months so in any one week it is possible for the employee to work in excess of 48 hours but by law employers should not let employees to average over 48 hours per week in a 4-6 month period.
(Check out employment law Ireland also)
Night Workers
Employers can not expect or oblige night workers to work over 8 hours in a 24 hour period; a night worker is a worker who works at least 3 hours post midnight as night work is considered to be from midnight to 7 am.
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