Holidays (Employees) Act, 1961

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Annual leave of domestic workers.

13.—(1) Every person who employs a 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 not less than three hundred days, allow at such time as such person thinks fit to the worker fourteen consecutive whole holidays including two Sundays (in this Act also referred to as annual leave).

(2) Where a person allows to a domestic worker in his employment seven consecutive whole holidays (in this Act referred to as semi-annual leave) in the first half of the employment year of the domestic worker and also allows to the worker semi-annual leave in the second half of that employment year, the provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall not apply as regards that worker in that employment year.

(3) Where a domestic worker is allowed annual leave or semiannual leave, the employer of the worker shall pay to the worker in respect of the annual leave or semi-annual leave a sum equivalent to the amount which the worker received from the employer as salary or wages in respect of—

(a) in case the worker is allowed annual leave, the two consecutive weeks next preceding the annual leave during which the worker worked the normal number of hours on the maximum number of days under his contract of service,

(b) in case the worker is allowed semi-annual leave, the week next preceding the semi-annual leave during which the worker worked the normal number of hours on the maximum number of days under his contract of service.

(4) Where—

(a) a domestic worker is employed by a person under a contract of service which includes lodgings,

(b) such person has given to the worker notice of intention to allow to the worker annual leave or semi-annual leave during a particular period, and

(c) the worker, with the consent of such person, remains at work with such person during that period,

such person shall, if, in addition to the wages for that period, he pays to the worker a sum equal to the amount of the wages, be deemed to have allowed to the worker a whole holiday on each of the days falling within that period.

(5) Where—

(a) a domestic worker ceases to be in the employment of a person during the currency of the first half of an employment year of the worker, and

(b) the worker has worked in the employment for not less than one hundred and fifty days in the first half, and

(c) the worker has not before the cesser been allowed during the first half either annual leave or semi-annual leave,

such person shall pay to the worker at the cesser a sum equivalent to the amount which, under subsection (3) of this section, he would have been liable to pay to the worker if he had in fact allowed the worker semi-annual leave during the first half and it had been allowed during the seven days preceding the cesser.

(6) Where a domestic worker ceases to be in the employment of a person during the currency of the second half of an employment year of the worker and the worker has not before the cesser been allowed either annual leave in respect of the employment year or semi-annual leave in respect of both the first half of the employment year and the second half, the following provisions shall have effect:

(a) if the worker has worked in the employment for not less than one hundred and fifty days in the first half and also for not less than one hundred and fifty days in the second half, such person shall on the cesser pay to the worker a sum equivalent to the amount which, under subsection (3) of this section, he would have been liable to pay to the worker if he had in fact allowed the worker the annual leave and it had been allowed during the fourteen days preceding the cesser;

(b) if—

(i) the worker has worked in the employment for not less than one hundred and fifty days in the first half, but for less than one hundred and fifty days in the second half, and

(ii) the worker has before the cesser not been allowed semi-annual leave during the first half,

such person shall pay to the worker on the cesser a sum equivalent to the amount which, under subsection (3) of this section, he would have been liable to pay to the worker if he had in fact allowed the worker semi-annual leave during the first half and it had been allowed during the last seven days of the first half;

(c) if—

(i) the worker has worked in the employment for less than one hundred and fifty days in the first half, but for not less than one hundred and fifty days in the second half, and

(ii) the worker has not been allowed before the cesser semi-annual leave during the first half or the second half,

such person shall pay to the worker on the cesser a sum equivalent to the amount which, under subsection (3) of this section, he would have been liable to pay to the worker if he had in fact allowed the worker semi-annual leave during the second half and it had been allowed during the last seven days of the second half.

(7) The Minister may, 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 domestic workers all or any of the periods of three hundred days or one hundred and fifty days mentioned in subsections (1), (5) and (6) of this section by substituting therefor such other 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 domestic workers or the class or classes of 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.

(8) Where any non-working day or any two or more consecutive non-working days falls or fall immediately before or after a day on which an employer has allowed a 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.

(9) No day which is a public holiday or a day on which a non-domestic worker is deemed, in pursuance of section 9 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.

(10) This section shall apply to the employment year current at the commencement of this Act of every person who is a 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.

(11) Where a person who employs a domestic worker proposes to grant the worker any whole holidays in pursuance of this section-—

(a) he shall, not later than fourteen days before the day on which the whole holidays are to commence, give notice of his intention to grant the whole holidays and of the day on which they will begin;

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

(12) For the purposes of this section a domestic worker shall be deemed to have worked in the employment of a particular person on any day on which he has been available for service at such person's request for a period of two or more hours.