Benefits | Annual Leave Toolkit | FAQs

Payment in lieu of annual leave is not permitted. The Manager must ensure that the staff member is given the opportunity to take accrued leave during the calendar year / before the end of a fixed term contract. In exceptional circumstances, staff who are leaving the organisation may receive payment in lieu of a small amount of untaken accrued leave.

A Manager can approve a maximum carry over of up to 5 days leave into the new calendar year in exceptional circumstances. 

Example: It was not possible to approve all of a staff member’s leave entitlement due to other staff being on sick leave and having to maintain adequate cover of a busy service area. In this case, five days leave was carried over. 

For guidance on annual leave carry over, contact your DCU People Business Partner. 

Certified sick leave occurring during a period of annual leave, if notified immediately, has the effect of cancelling authorised annual leave. Annual leave will not then be resumed until the staff member returns to work or provides evidence of fitness to return to work. For further information regarding sick leave please refer to the Sick Leave policy.

A staff member who is acting in a higher grade is entitled to the annual leave (pro rata) applicable to the higher grade during the period of the acting arrangement.

Yes. Staff members benefit from a day off on the following public holidays, in addition to their annual leave:

• Christmas Day
• St Stephen's Day
• St Patrick's Day
• Easter Monday
• The first Monday in May, June and August
• The last Monday in October
• New Year's Day
• Staff members will also benefit from a day off on Good Friday (although it's not a public holiday).

Annual Leave is calculated on a pro-rata basis. For example, if you work 4 days a week (80% of the normal working week) then you are entitled to 80% of the full-time annual leave entitlement for your grade).

Annual Leave is calculated on a pro-rata basis. For example, if you are on a 7-month contract, you are entitled to annual leave of 7/12th's of the annual entitlement.

If you have been at the top of your salary scale for three years or more you may be eligible for additional annual leave. Please refer to the Additional Annual Leave Scheme for full details.

From 1st August 2015, workers can accrue annual leave when they are on long-term sick leave. This means:

• Statutory annual leave entitlement accrues during a period of certified sick leave.
• An annual leave carryover period of 15 months after a leave year will apply to those employees who could not, due to illness, take annual leave during the relevant leave year or during the normal carryover period of 6 months.
• On termination of employment, payment in lieu of untaken accrued annual leave will apply to leave which was untaken as a result of illness in circumstances where the employee leaves the employment within a period of 15 months following the end of the leave year during which the statutory leave entitlement accrued.

These changes were brought about under Section 86(1) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.