How the Christmas Public Holidays Work When You Close the Site

Three public holidays fall inside a typical Christmas closure this year: Christmas Day on Friday 25 December, St Stephen’s Day on Saturday 26 December and New Year’s Day on Friday 1 January 2027. Every employee who qualifies gets a benefit for each of the three, including the one that lands on a Saturday. You decide which benefit each worker gets. The other working days in the closure come out of annual leave.

So before the site shuts there are three things to settle: what each worker gets for each holiday, how many leave days the closure takes from each of them, and when you have to tell them. Each one has a date attached, and a part-timer can come out quite differently from a full-timer. A worked calendar for a crew of three shows how it adds up.

What the law gives each worker for the Christmas public holidays

Public holiday entitlement comes from the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. It’s the law that sets the minimum annual leave and public holiday benefits for every employee in Ireland. It’s a legal requirement, not an industry custom, and the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) inspects employers and hears complaints under it. Section 21 gives the choice to you, the employer. For each public holiday, the worker gets one of four things:

• a paid day off on the holiday itself;
• a paid day off within a month of it;
• an extra day of annual leave;
• an extra day’s pay.

When the holiday falls on a day the worker wouldn’t be working anyway, the first option drops out. That’s the position for St Stephen’s Day on a Saturday for a Monday-to-Friday crew. They still get a benefit, but it has to be one of the other three. Citizens Information and the WRC both point out that nobody has an automatic right to the following Monday off. You can give Monday 28 December as the paid day off within the month, but that’s your call.

Part-timers need 40 hours in the five weeks before

Full-time employees qualify for every public holiday from their first day. A part-timer qualifies for a particular holiday only if they’ve worked at least 40 hours for you in the five weeks ending the day before it. The test applies to each holiday separately, so a part-timer could qualify for Christmas Day and miss New Year’s Day.

Annual leave counts as time worked for the 40 hours, under section 22(2) of the Act, so closure leave days don’t push anyone under. The workers to check are a part-timer who started in late November, or someone on one short day a week.

The pay for a part-timer’s holiday comes from the Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay for Holidays) Regulations 1997, S.I. No. 475 of 1997, the rules that put a figure on holiday pay. Where the holiday isn’t a day the worker normally works, the benefit is worth one-fifth of their normal weekly pay. It’s capped at what a normal working day would have paid them.

When the crew can ask, and when you must answer

A worker can ask you, at least 21 days before a public holiday, which option you’re giving them. You then have to tell them at least 14 days before the holiday. If you don’t answer in time, the Act decides for you. They get a paid day off on the holiday, or an extra day’s pay where the holiday isn’t a day they’d have worked. For the Christmas public holidays this year, the dates are:

• Christmas Day: they can ask by Friday 4 December, and you answer by Friday 11 December.
• St Stephen’s Day: they can ask by Saturday 5 December, and you answer by Saturday 12 December.
• New Year’s Day: they can ask by Friday 11 December, and you answer by Friday 18 December.

You can skip the back-and-forth altogether. Decide each worker’s option for all three holidays when you set the closure dates, and put it in the same note to the crew.

The closure days that come out of annual leave

The working days in the closure that aren’t public holidays are annual leave. Section 20 of the Act lets you decide when annual leave is taken, with two conditions. You must consult the worker, or their union, not later than one month before the leave starts. For a closure that begins on Wednesday 23 December, that’s by Monday 23 November. And the leave must be paid in advance at the normal weekly rate, so the closure days go into the last pay before the break.

Consulting isn’t the same as asking permission. You’re telling the crew the plan and hearing any problems, such as an apprentice with college dates or someone saving days for a family wedding. Put the dates in writing and keep a copy.

How many days each worker can spend depends on their entitlement. A full-time worker gets four working weeks a year under section 19, which is 20 days on a five-day week. A part-timer usually gets 8% of the hours they work, up to four of their own working weeks. The statutory leave year runs from 1 April, although many employers use the calendar year.

A worked calendar for a crew of three

Take a hypothetical small building firm in County Kildare, with figures set out so you can swap in your own crew. It shuts from Wednesday 23 December 2026 and reopens on Monday 4 January 2027. The last day worked is Tuesday 22 December. There are three on the books:

• a carpenter, full-time, Monday to Friday;
• a second-year apprentice, also full-time;
• a labourer on three days a week, Monday to Wednesday, eight hours a day.

All three have done their 40 hours, so they qualify for all three holidays. You give the two full-timers Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off on the day, and Monday 28 December as their paid day off for St Stephen’s Day. The labourer isn’t rostered on any of the three holidays, so you give him an extra day’s pay for each.

The full-timers use five days of annual leave, a quarter of their year. If you gave them an extra day of annual leave for St Stephen’s Day instead, the closure would take six days and give one back, so the net cost is the same five days.

What the labourer’s three holidays are worth

On three days a week, the labourer’s year of leave works out at 12 days, four of his own working weeks. Four of his rostered days fall inside the closure, so he uses a third of his year. His three holidays are each worth one-fifth of his weekly wage. This firm is covered by the Sectoral Employment Order for the construction sector, a legally binding order that sets minimum pay for craftspeople, operatives and apprentices. The Minister makes it on the Labour Court’s recommendation, and the current one is S.I. No. 620 of 2024. Its Category B rate from 1 August 2026 is €21.37 an hour, so the labourer’s 24-hour week pays €512.88. One-fifth is €102.58, and the three holidays add €307.74 to his December pay.

Two pay figures to settle before the break

The day off for St Stephen’s Day is the first. Because the holiday itself fell on a Saturday, the 1997 Regulations price it at one-fifth of the weekly wage, even when you give the day on a Monday. At the order’s craft rate of €23.74 an hour over its 39-hour week, the carpenter’s week is €925.86. One-fifth is €185.17, against €189.92 for an ordinary eight-hour Monday. The Regulations let you pay more than the minimum, and paying the normal day avoids a €4.75 argument.

Christmas Day pay is the second. The Regulations base it on the normal daily hours last worked before the holiday. The order’s week runs eight hours Monday to Thursday and seven on Friday, and here the last day worked was an eight-hour Tuesday. Read strictly, that gives the carpenter €189.92 for Christmas Day, while a normal Friday pays €166.18, and the wording doesn’t settle which is right. Paying the full normal week for Christmas week avoids the question.

Call-outs and sick days over the closure

Two more questions come up most years. Anyone covered by the order who works a public holiday, say on an emergency call-out on St Stephen’s Day, gets double time plus an extra day’s leave. And a worker who is sick during the closure and gives you a medical certificate keeps those days: under section 19(2), certified sick days aren’t annual leave.

For this crew, then, the closure and the Christmas public holidays cost the full-timers five days of leave each and the labourer four, plus €307.74 in extra pay. Holiday pay goes through payroll like any other week, employer PRSI included; our guide to employer PRSI for contractors covers the rate. January brings its own changes to the payroll, which our summary of Budget 2027 for trade businesses sets out. And if a customer’s payment is all that stands between you and the closure pay, see how a payment claim notice under the Construction Contracts Act starts the clock.