Good Friday Pay

smiley_face400

If an employer decides to close for Good Friday is the onus on them to pay you as they would on a Bank Holiday? My company is closing on Good Friday, we do not have the option to go in if we want to work yet they are making us take the day as annual leave despite the fact that we were not given the option of taking a leave day or opening as we would on any other day which many of us would be happy to do.

Basically, is it legal for them to make the decision to close above the employee's heads and then force said employees to use their annual leave without us having any choice in the matter?

Stephen Gawking

Your employer cannot force you to take annual leave for any public/bank holiday. I'm open to correction but I believe that In lieu of bank holiday payment the employer must offer an additional days paid annual leave to be taken at the employees discretion within 31 days or failing that they must pay what's known as 'statutory pay' which equates to a rate of pay the employer would pay for a week day. You should contact citizens advice for further information.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Stephen Gawking wrote: »

Your employer cannot force you to take annual leave for any public/bank holiday. I'm open to correction but I believe that In lieu of bank holiday payment the employer must offer an additional days paid annual leave to be taken at the employees discretion within 31 days or failing that they must pay what's known as 'statutory pay' which equates to a rate of pay the employer would pay for a week day. You should contact citizens advice for further information.

except Good Friday is not a bank holiday. There are 9 of them.

new Years Day
St Patricks day
Easter Monday
Mah bank holiday
June Back Holiday
August Bank Holiday
A monday around Halloween
Christmas day
St Stephens day

It is of course important to remember that your boss can instruct you to take your annual leave at any time that is convenient to him.

BrianBoru00

Good Friday isn't a bank holiday

godtabh

BrianBoru00 wrote: »

Good Friday isn't a bank holiday

It is a bank holiday but not a public holiday.

BrianBoru00

godtabh wrote: »

It is a bank holiday but not a public holiday.

They're the same thing.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/leave_and_holidays/public_holidays_in_ireland.html

ezra_pound

godtabh wrote: »

It is a bank holiday but not a public holiday.

No. It's neither a public holiday or a bank holiday.

smiley_face400

I know Good Friday is not a bank holiday and therefore an employer is not required to give the day off. However, it was my employer's decision to close not the staff's (most of us would have been happy to work as a normal day) and we are then expected to have it taken out of our annual leave despite not being given the option to work and get paid instead

Howjoe1

For the record:


Public Holidays

There are nine public holidays as follows:

New Years Day (January 1),
St. Patrick's Day (March 17),
Easter Monday,
The first Monday in May,
The first Monday in June,
The first Monday in August,
The last Monday in October,
Christmas Day (December 25),
St. Stephen's Day (December 26).

Howjoe1

I read Good Friday as being a day you work or company closes and its taken as a day's annual leave.

smiley_face400

"Good Friday is not a public holiday. While some schools and businesses close on that day, you have no automatic entitlement to time off work on that day."

I read that as if the company is open then you have to work if scheduled on Good Friday. If you want the day off then it needs to be booked as annual leave. However, I did not opt for the day off as I was given no choice in the matter. Also, I don't have the option to work that day as a normal day as the company is closed

delly

Guys, forget the debate of Good Friday being a holiday or not (it isn't). To help with the OP's issue, think of his/her employer closing the office/factory this Thursday and telling all normal Thursday workers to take Thursday as a day from their annual leave. Is this allowed or not?

coylemj

Can we please stop talking about a 'bank holiday'? The issues that are being discussed relate only to days defined in labour legislation as a 'public holiday' which Good Friday is not . Banks can open and close whenever they like, there is legally no such thing as a 'bank holiday'.

The Citizens Information website is a hodge-podge of amateur advice which gets endlessly quoted here as if it was the oracle of all things but it is very often simply wrong. Recent example that came up in a boards discussion: they are currently saying that you cannot brings blades or knives on to a plane when the DAA website clearly says that knives and scissors with blades of up to 6cm are allowed.

28064212

"Bank holiday" has no legal meaning. Some (all?) Irish banks use the term to describe non-processing days e.g. BOI - http://businessbanking.bankofireland.com/fs/doc/wysiwyg/1bank-holidays-2016-final.pdf. You'll note that there are a number of days there that aren't public holidays, such as December 29th.

And yes OP, a business can choose to close its doors on any day and insist you take it as annual leave (within a couple of reasonable parameters e.g. notice periods). This is an extremely common practice for Good Friday

phildin

This situation always annoys me but I believe that it's legal. Specifically, an employer can tell you that the office will be closed on a particular day and that you should take annual leave on that day. My employment contract contains a provision to this effect and I'm not aware of any grounds to challenge it.

esforum

smiley_face400 wrote: »

"Good Friday is not a public holiday. While some schools and businesses close on that day, you have no automatic entitlement to time off work on that day."

I read that as if the company is open then you have to work if scheduled on Good Friday. If you want the day off then it needs to be booked as annual leave. However, I did not opt for the day off as I was given no choice in the matter. Also, I don't have the option to work that day as a normal day as the company is closed

he can make you take all your leave on days that he chooses. thats the way it is

In theory they could close for 20 days over December / January and thats that for your leave

testicle

Your employer decides when you take your holidays. You don't.

stimpson

If they are forcing you to take the day then they must provide you with at least one months notice. See http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1997/act/20/section/20/enacted/en/html#sec20