As proposed during the budget speech for the year 2018, the Organisation of Working Time Regulations have been amended to include an additional 8 hours of vacation leave.

Subsidiary Legislation 452.87 has been amended by virtue of Legal Notice 367 of 2017 to include an additional 8 hours of paid leave for every worker to their annual entitlement. In terms of the Organisation of Working Time, one would be entitled to paid annual  leave  of at least the equivalent in hours of four weeks and thirty-two hours calculated on the basis of a forty-hour working week, and an eight-hour  working  day and out  of this paid annual  leave entitlement, a minimum period equivalent to four weeks  may not be replaced by an allowance in lieu.

Where the average weekly working time, calculated on the basis of a reference period of seventeen weeks, is below or exceeds forty hours per week, the annual leave entitlement in hours shall be adjusted accordingly.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.