Holiday entitlement in Northern Ireland: a plain guide for employers

Every worker in Northern Ireland is entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. The tricky parts are part-timers, irregular hours, people who join or leave mid-year, and the rules that changed in Great Britain but not here.

Updated 9 October 2026 · DeskKit Tools, Belfast

The basic rule: 5.6 weeks

The statutory minimum in Northern Ireland is 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave a year, set by the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016. For someone who works a five-day week, that is 28 days. The statutory amount is capped at 28 days, so a person working six days a week still gets 28 days by law, although you can give more in the contract.

The quick sum, as nidirect puts it, is days worked per week multiplied by 5.6:

If people work different lengths of day, it is often fairer to work in hours. Someone on 30 hours a week gets 30 x 5.6 = 168 hours of paid holiday a year.

Bank holidays in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has 10 bank and public holidays, including St Patrick's Day and the Battle of the Boyne (Orangemen's Day). There is no legal right to have them off or to be paid extra for working them. What matters is what the contract says.

Many small businesses include bank holidays inside the 28 days, for example "20 days plus the 8 bank holidays we close for". That is allowed, as long as the total paid leave is still at least 5.6 weeks. If you close on all 10 NI bank holidays and count them as holiday, a full-timer has 18 days left to choose.

Part-timers should get bank holiday time pro rata, even when the bank holiday falls on a day they don't normally work. The simplest way to stay fair is to give everyone their 5.6 weeks in hours or days and then deduct bank holidays they take, rather than giving bank holidays only to the people who happen to work Mondays.

Part-time staff

Part-time workers have the same 5.6 weeks, worked out on their own week. Someone working three days gets 16.8 days. Under the part-time workers rules you also can't treat them less favourably than a comparable full-timer, so if full-timers get extra contractual days, part-timers should get a pro rata share.

Fractions are normal. You can round up to a half or whole day if that is easier, but you can't round down below the statutory minimum.

Irregular hours, casual and term-time staff

This is where Northern Ireland differs from Great Britain. In April 2024 GB brought in a new method for irregular-hours and part-year workers, where holiday builds up at 12.07% of hours worked, and allowed rolled-up holiday pay. Those changes do not apply in Northern Ireland.

The Labour Relations Agency explains the NI position after the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel:

• Part-year workers on a continuing contract (for example term-time staff) are entitled to the full 5.6 weeks, even though there are weeks when they don't work. Their leave is not pro-rated down using 12.07%.
• Casual workers who are only engaged for short periods should get the appropriate proportion of 5.6 weeks for the time they are employed.
• Rolled-up holiday pay (adding a holiday percentage to every payslip instead of paying when leave is taken) remains unlawful in NI.

If you have been using 12.07% for anyone in Northern Ireland, it is worth reviewing with the LRA or an adviser.

Holiday pay: the 12-week reference period

Holiday should be paid at the worker's normal pay. Where pay varies from week to week, you work out an average week's pay. In GB the reference period is 52 weeks. In Northern Ireland it is still 12 weeks, ignoring weeks with no pay, according to the LRA at the time of writing. The LRA notes that NI employers can use a 52-week figure only if it is not lower than the 12-week figure. Regular overtime and commission can count as normal pay, so check the LRA guidance if your staff earn either.

Starters and leavers

Someone who joins part way through your holiday year gets the proportion of the year they will work. A full-timer starting halfway through gets 14 days for that year.

In the first year of employment, the NI regulations let you limit leave to what has built up so far: one twelfth of the year's entitlement on the first day of each month. Fractions of a day are rounded up to a half or whole day under the regulations.

Someone who leaves must be paid for statutory holiday they have built up but not taken. If they have taken more than they built up, you can only recover the overpayment if the contract allows it.

Worked example

A Belfast café has a holiday year from 1 January. Aoife works four days a week and starts on 1 April.

• Full-year entitlement: 4 x 5.6 = 22.4 days.
• She works 9 of the 12 months, so her entitlement for this year is 22.4 x 9/12 = 16.8 days.
• The café closes on bank holidays and counts them as holiday, so her bank holiday share comes out of the 16.8 days.

The free calculator linked below does this sum for you and shows the NI bank holidays in the date range.

A short checklist for your contracts

• State the holiday year (for example 1 January or 1 April) and how much holiday each person gets, in days or hours.
• Say whether bank holidays are included in the total and which ones you close for.
• Set out notice rules for booking holiday and any busy periods when leave is limited.
• Explain what happens to untaken leave and to holiday on leaving.
• Keep a simple record of leave booked and taken for each person.

General information for small businesses, not legal or professional advice. Rules change, so check the official sources linked above before you rely on them.