In Ireland, businesses are required to provide a benefit for staff who work, or do not work a Public Holiday. One of the challenges businesses face is validating if an employee is eligible to receive a benefit and if applicable, accurately calculating the cost of the benefit.
For organisations who cost a benefit averaged over a 13 week period, Workforce can ensure that your organisation is compliant with Irish legislation. By following the guide below, you will learn how to set up leave types which will automatically calculate the appropriate number of hours and cost for your employees’ leave and additional pay entitlements over a 13 week period.
Please note, Workforce currently supports providing a calculation for a “day of leave” or “additional day’s pay” as public holiday benefits. For organisations who provide an “additional day of annual leave”, “a paid day off within a month of the public holiday” or "TOIL" (time off in lieu), this can be managed manually within Workforce.
For more information about the legal requirements, see the following links:
Configuring Leave Types for the benefit
First, you will need to have a leave type set up that applies hours and cost averaging.
To configure this, go to ‘Leave’ > ‘Leave Types’ to create a new leave type, or edit an existing one:
In order for the calculations and benefit to automatically apply, the leave type should have the following settings applied:
The “Leave applies on” option should be set to either Bank/Public Holidays or Every Day (incl. Bank/Public Holidays).
The “Automatically apply this leave type on bank/public holidays checkbox should be ticked. This will ensure leave requests are automatically created for the averaging calculations to take place.
Under “2. Costing configuration”, Leave Averaging, the Apply leave averaging toggle should be toggled ON. This will ensure leave requests on public holidays where the employee does not work are averaged.
Under “2. Costing configuration”, Worked Entitlement, the Additional pay toggle should be toggled ON. This will ensure employees receive their additional pay entitlement if they worked on the public holiday.
NB: Workforce currently only supports a day of leave or additional pay as public holiday benefits.
5. Make sure to save your changes!
What is “automated”?
When the above settings are configured, Workforce is able to support calculating the correct benefit for staff in the following ways:
To be eligible for a benefit, an employee must have worked 40 hours in the past 5 weeks prior to the Public Holiday. Workforce does this by applying a validation to ensure only eligible employees receive a benefit.
If an employee is eligible, one of two benefits will apply:
Employees who do not work on a Public Holiday but qualify for a benefit
A benefit applies in the form of an automated "Leave Request" on the day of the Public Holiday
The Automated Leave Request applies as the employees weekly average hours divided by 5
The cost of the Automated Leave Request is calculated as the weekly average cost divided by 5
Employees who work on a Public Holiday and qualify for a a benefit
A benefit applies in the form of an Allowance and is supplementary to the worked shift cost on the Public Holiday
The unit/cost of the Allowance is calculated as the average daily hours
The cost of the Allowance is calculated as the units/hours multiplied by the employee’s base rate
To learn more about the automated functions and expected outcomes, continue reading below.
Employees who do not work on a Public Holiday but qualify for a benefit
Configuring a “Leave Type” with Leave Averaging enabled will ensure that the hours and cost of your employees Public Holiday benefit are calculated in accordance with legislation in Ireland. This requires that employees who receive a paid day off on a public holiday be paid one-fifth of their average weekly pay over the past 13 weeks up to and including the day before the public holiday.
What’s included/excluded in the calculation?
Workforce calculates the average hours and cost of an employee’s leave request by looking at historic timesheet data over the past 13 weeks
Weeks where the employee did not work and weeks before the employee commenced their employment are not included in the averaging calculation
Paid leave and allowances are included in the calculation, but not overtime.
Part-time employees must also have worked at least 40 hours or more in the previous 5 weeks up to and including the day before the public holiday to qualify for a day of leave on that public holiday.
How the benefit applies on the timesheet
Leave requests for Public Holidays appear on staff timesheets like any other automated leave request.
The hours and cost shown on the leave request will reflect one-fifth of the average weekly hours and cost worked by the employee over the previous 13 weeks.
Managers can also view this information in the timesheet export summary:
Note that the hours and cost shown are subject to change until the date of the public holiday has elapsed and all previous timesheets are locked and exported. This is to ensure the hours and cost accurately reflect the employee’s actual worked hours over the previous 13 weeks.
When the Leave Request applies on the timesheet
It is not necessary to manually create a leave request for your employees if you have set up your leave type as above to automatically create leave requests on public holidays.
At the end of the business day, Workforce will create a leave request for the employee if they have not worked a shift on the public holiday and average the hours and cost appropriately.
Employees who work on a Public Holiday and qualify for a a benefit
When a leave type with Additional Pay is selected as the Worked Entitlement, Workforce will ensure that your eligible employees receive additional pay in accordance with legislation in Ireland. This requires that employees who work on a public holiday and who receive an additional pay entitlement receive an amount equivalent to their average daily pay over the last 13 weeks up to and including the day before the public holiday.
What’s included/excluded in the calculation?
Workforce calculates the average hours and cost of an employee’s benefit by looking at historic timesheets over the past 13 weeks
Weeks where the employee did not work and weeks before the employee commenced their employment are not included in the averaging calculation
Paid leave and allowances are included in the calculation, but not overtime.
Part-time employees must also have worked at least 40 hours or more in the previous 5 weeks up to and including the day before the public holiday to qualify for an additional pay entitlement on the public holiday
How the benefit applies on the timesheet
Additional pay entitlements for Public Holidays appear on staff timesheets as an Allowance on the shift worked on the Public Holiday.
The units shown on the Allowance will reflect the average daily hours worked by the employee over the previous 13 weeks.
The cost of the additional pay can be seen in the timesheet export summary:
Note that the hours and cost shown are subject to change until the date of the public holiday has elapsed and all previous timesheets are locked and exported. This is to ensure the hours and cost accurately reflect the employee’s actual worked hours over the previous 13 weeks.
When an additional pay allowance appears on a timesheet
It is not necessary to manually create an allowance for your employees if you have set up your leave type as above to automatically apply additional pay benefits on public holidays.
At the end of the day, Workforce will apply the allowance to an employee’s shift if they have worked a shift on the public holiday and average the hours and cost appropriately.
FAQ
Why is my employee’s base rate on their timesheet different from the one on their profile?
The calculations that average an employee’s worked hours over the previous 13 weeks may show discrepancies with an employee’s current base rate of pay. There are two scenarios where this might occur:
The employee received allowances in the previous 13 weeks. This may cause their average base rate of pay to appear higher than their actual base rate of pay.
The employee’s base rate of pay changed in the previous 13 weeks. This may cause their average base rate of pay to appear somewhere between their previous and their current base rate of pay.