asked the Minister for Labour the total number of paid leave days applicable to industrial workers and to agricultural workers from 1959 to date.
Written Answers. - Paid Leave Days.
199.
Under the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1939, industrial workers who were earning not more that £350 per annum and who worked for one employer not less than eighteen hundred hours in the employment year, or fifteen hundred hours if under the age of 18, were entitled to seven consecutive days annual leave and to six public holidays.
The Holidays (Employees) Act, 1961 was brought into operation on 10th August, 1961. Under that Act industrial workers who worked for one employer for not less than sixteen hundred hours in the employment year, fifteen hundred hours if under the age of 18, were entitled to fourteen consecutive whole holidays including two Sundays and to the six traditional public holidays. The 1961 Act also abolished the wage qualification of not more than £350 per annum.
The number of public holidays remained unchanged until the first day of January, 1974 was declared a public holiday for the purposes of the 1961 Act.
On 1st April, 1974 the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 came into operation. This Act increased the annual entitlement of industrial workers to three working weeks and reduced the qualifying number of hours required to be worked during the leave year to 1,400, or 1,300 if under 18 years of age. In the 1973 Act the same public holidays were listed as had been shown in earlier Acts. The Act was passed in the autumn of 1973 before the new public holiday on January 1st was announced. It was, therefore, necessary to make a regulation under the 1973 Act—the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 (Public Holiday) Regulations, 1974 (S.I. No. 341 of 1974)— appointing the 1st of January a public holiday in future years.
The present position is, therefore, that industrial workers who work the qualifying number of hours are entitled to three weeks' annual leave and to seven paid public holidays.
The laws relating to paid leave for agricultural workers are administered by the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries.