Holidays (Employees) Act, 1961

PART III

Annual leave

Annual leave of non-domestic workers,

10.—(1) Every person who employs a non-domestic worker shall in every employment year of the worker during which he has been in the employment of such person, either continuously or on a day to day basis, and has worked in that employment for—

(a) a period of not less than sixteen hundred hours, or

(b) in the case of an industrial worker under eighteen years of age, or a worker under eighteen years of age who is employed in mining, a period of not less than fifteen hundred hours,

allow at such time as such person thinks fit to the worker fourteen consecutive whole holidays including two Sundays (in this Act referred to as annual leave).

(2) Where a non-domestic worker is allowed annual leave, the employer of the worker shall pay to the worker in respect of the annual leave a sum equivalent to twice the worker's normal weekly wage.

(3) Where—

(a) a non-domestic worker employed by a person ceases, at any time other than the end of an employment year of the worker, to be in the employment of such person,

(b) such person has not allowed the worker before the cesser annual leave in respect of the portion of the employment year during which he was so employed,

such person shall pay to the worker at the cesser a sum equivalent to one-sixth of his normal weekly wages in respect of each month in the said portion of the employment year during which he has worked

(c) in the case of an industrial worker under eighteen years of age, or a worker under eighteen years of age who is employed in mining, for not less than one hundred and twenty hours in that month, and

(d) in the case of any other worker, for not less than one hundred and thirty-five hours in that month.

(4) For the purposes of subsections (2) and (3) of this section the normal weekly wage of a worker shall be—

(a) in case the ordinary remuneration of the worker is wholly calculated by reference to time, a sum equivalent to the amount (exclusive of pay for overtime) which the worker received from the employer as salary or wagesin respect of the week next preceding the annual leave or cesser during which the worker worked the normal number of hours on the normal maximum number of days under his contract of service, and

(b) in any other case, a sum equivalent to the amount of his average weekly earnings (exclusive of pay for overtime) for the six months immediately preceding the annual leave or cesser if he has been so long employed by the employer but if not, then for any less period during which he has been employed by the employer.

(5) Each hour of intermittent unemployment of a worker in respect of which supplementary benefit is payable under section 28 of the Insurance (Intermittent Unemployment) Act, 1942 , shall be deemed to be an hour worked for the purposes of this section up to a maximum of two hundred and fifty hours in any employment year of the worker.

(6) The Minister may by order whenever and so often as he so thinks proper, make regulations varying in respect of all or any particular class or classes (defined in such manner and by reference to such things as the Minister thinks proper) of non-domestic workers all or any of the periods of sixteen hundred hours, fifteen hundred hours, one hundred and twenty hours, or one hundred and thirty-five hours mentioned in subsections (1) and (3) of this section by substituting therefor either such other number of hours or such number of days as the Minister thinks proper, and whenever any such regulations are in force, those subsections shall have effect in respect of the non-domestic workers or the class or classes of non-domestic workers to which the regulations apply, as if those periods or such of them as are affected by the regulations were varied in the manner stated in the regulations.

(7) Where any non-working day or any two or more consecutive non-working days falls or fall immediately before or immediately after a day on which an employer has allowed a non-domestic worker a whole holiday, the non-working day or each of the consecutive non-working days (as the case may be) shall, if the worker does not work thereon for the employer, be deemed for the purposes of this section to be a day on which the employer has allowed the worker a whole holiday.

(8) No day which is a public holiday or a day on which a non-domestic worker is deemed, in pursuance of the immediately precedingsection of this Act, to have been allowed a whole holiday shall be reckoned as a day of annual leave, but if any such day intervenes between days of annual leave, those days shall be deemed to be consecutive notwithstanding the intervention.

(9) This section shall apply to the employment year current At the commencement of this Act of every person who is a non-domestic worker at such commencement, and this section shall have effect in respect of that employment year and that person as if this section had been in force at the beginning of that employment year, but subject to the modifications that—

(a) if that employment year expires within one month after the commencement of this Act, the employer of such person shall be deemed to have complied with this section if he allows to such person not later than three months after the expiration of that employment year, such annual leave as he may be entitled to under this section in respect of that employment year, and

(b) if such employer has before such commencement allowed to such person in that employment year one or more whole holidays which would be annual leave for the purposes of this section but for the fact that they were less than fourteen, or were not consecutive, or were both less than fourteen and not consecutive, the said whole holidays so allowed shall be deemed to be annual leave for the purposes of this section and such person shall only be entitled in respect of that employment year to such number (if any) of consecutive whole holidays after such commencement as is equal to the number (if any) of days by which the number of the said holidays so allowed is less than fourteen.

(10) Where a person who employs a non-domestic worker proposes to allow the worker annual leave in pursuance of this section—

(a) he shall, not later than fourteen days before the day on which the annual leave is to commence, give notice of his intention to allow the leave and of the day on which it will begin;

(b) if he fails to comply with paragraph (a) of this subsection, he shall be guilty of an offence.

(11) If the employer of a[html] non-domestic worker allows to the worker- in any employment year a period of annual leave earlier than the last fourteen days (being days which are reckonable as days of annual leave for the purposes of this section) of the employment year and the worker leaves the employment of the employer before the termination of the employment year, the employer shall not be entitled in respect of the allowance of annual leave to reduce the period of notice required for terminating the employment, nor the pay nor other emoluments to which the worker may be entitled at the time of leaving such employment.