Q. I’ve been working for the same company since about 2018. Over the Covid period, I ended up being depended on to a fairly large degree. I wasn’t able to take much in the way of annual leave until 2024, I had about 10 weeks or so of leave built up. I took three weeks off in the early part of 2025 and was looking to take similar at the start of this year, but have now been told that my holidays didn’t roll over and I’ve lost them. I was always told that I would be looked after and now feel that I’ve been swindled. What can I do?
Dear Reader,
Every employee is entitled to certain periods of annual leave. A full time employee is entitled as a matter of law to four weeks leave in a given year. You should check your contract or employee handbook to see precisely how your leave is calculated.
Annual leave that accrues in that working year generally should be taken in that particular year. However, if both you and your employers agree, any unused days can be carried over to the first six months of the next year, and can be further carried over by agreement. Clearly, you are concerned about leave built up over a number of years.
There are various Irish and European Court decisions which confirm that ‘use it or lose it’ policies relating to annual leave are only permissible in circumstances where the employee themselves do not wish to use their annual leave.
In your case, presumably your employer asked you not to take such annual leave and promised it would be carried over. Clearly you have not consented to a ‘use it or lose it policy’. You should try and gather together any communications about the carrying forward of the leave entitlement.
Apart from carrying over leave, it is a matter for the employer to decide when and in what manner leave can be taken, but the employee must be consulted. As a full time employee, you are entitled to an unbroken two-week period of annual leave, but again it is your employer’s decision as to when that period should be taken – although you do have a right to be consulted. You would likely not be able to enforce this three-week break.
If you have a a good working relationship with management, the issue should be raised as there may be a misunderstanding. Ultimately, your might need to take a claim to the Workplace Relations Commission, but relatively tight timescales apply and so you would be well advised to seek immediate advice.