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Increase in holiday entitlement

27 March 2009

Employment Minister, Sir Reg Empey, today reminded employers and employees that statutory holiday entitlement will increase from 1 April 2009, under Regulations approved by the Assembly in January 2008.

Workers could gain up to four extra days in addition to their current statutory 4.8 weeks annual leave, with the lowest paid, women, part-timers and those from ethnic minorities, gaining the most.

This is the second phase of the approved increase which raised entitlement from 20 days a year to 24 days from 1 October 2007, and to 28 days from 1 April 2009.

Commenting on the increased entitlement Sir Reg Empey said: “This is good news for workers in Northern Ireland as it means that they will be able to strike a better work-life balance and spend more time with family and friends. “I recognise that this increase comes at a difficult time for employers but, having received advanced notification of the increase, many will have already made provision for this.  Good holiday provision helps to keep people motivated and can be a key factor in recruiting and retaining staff.”

As a transitional measure, in order to give employers time to adapt to the new holiday entitlement, companies had been allowed to pay their employees in lieu of the additional four days holiday, however, from 1 April 2009, employers will no longer be able to buy out any additional leave

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The right to 20 days paid annual leave was introduced by the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998. The additional entitlement was implemented through The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007.

2.  The increase has been implemented in two phases: from 20 days a year to 24 days from 1 October 2007, and to 28 days from 1 April 2009. This is equivalent to an overall increase from 4 weeks to 5.6 weeks per year. The entitlement is capped at 28 days.

3. For further information on the new holiday entitlement, see the Department for Employment and Learning's website at www.delni.gov.uk/paidholidayentitlement. This webpage contains a link to the Businesslink website, which contains a useful interactive tool for calculating holiday entitlement.

4.  Media enquiries to the Department for Employment and Learning Press    Office on 028 9025 7872.
5. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.