Working hours and breaks in Ireland: the 48-hour week, rest periods and breaks at work

The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 is the Act behind almost every question about hours in Ireland: how many hours you can be asked to work, how much rest you must get between shifts, when you are entitled to a break, and whether those breaks are paid. This guide sets out each rule with the figures the Act uses, then the separate rules for under-18s and night workers, breastfeeding breaks, the right to disconnect Code, and what to do if your employer is not keeping to them.

The 48-hour average week

You cannot be required to work more than an average of 48 hours a week. The average is taken over a reference period of 4 months. Two exceptions lengthen the period:

• 6 months in listed sectors, which include security, agriculture, hospitality and some others.
• Up to 12 months where a collective agreement approved by the Labour Court provides for it.

Because the cap is an average, a busy fortnight of 55-hour weeks is not a breach in itself. A sustained pattern is. If you want to know whether your employer is over the line, add up your hours for the reference period and divide by the number of weeks.

What counts as working time

Working time is any period when you are at your workplace, at your employer's disposal and carrying out your duties. Travel between your home and your normal workplace does not count. Travel between clients or sites during the working day usually does, because you are at the employer's disposal. Unpaid breaks are not working time. Time on call at the workplace generally is; time on call at home is less clear and turns on how restricted you are.

Hours in a second job count towards your total if the second employer knows about them; the Act asks the employer not to permit you to work beyond the average, so an employer that knows you work elsewhere has to take it into account.

Rest periods

The Act gives you two rest guarantees:

The weekly rest can alternatively be given as two 24-hour periods in a 14-day period. Where the nature of the work genuinely prevents the rest, for example on some shift changeovers or in continuous-process work, the employer must give equivalent compensatory rest soon afterwards. Simply paying for the missed rest is not compliance.

A common breach is the "close and open": finishing at 11pm and starting at 7am the next day leaves only 8 hours' rest. If that is your roster, the daily rest rule is not being met and the employer owes compensatory rest.

Breaks

The break entitlements are short and specific:

So on an 8-hour shift the Act requires 30 minutes in total, not 45. The break cannot be at the end of the day; it has to fall during the working period so that it is a real pause. The Act does not require the break to be paid, and the general practice is that it is not. If your contract pays breaks, that is a contractual term the employer has to honour.

"Mandatory breaks" and short shifts

A 4-hour shift carries no statutory break at all. A 5-hour shift carries 15 minutes. Those are minimums; the employer can give more. What the employer cannot do is roster you for 6.5 hours and provide no break because "it was busy". If you were unable to take breaks, note the dates and times: a working time complaint about breaks is one of the most common at the WRC and usually turns on records.

Under-18s

The Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996 is stricter than the 1997 Act. Under it, 16 and 17 year olds may work up to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, cannot do night work in most jobs, and get longer breaks than adults. Under-16s are more restricted again, and the general rule is light work outside school hours with limits set by age. Employers must keep a register of young workers and must see a birth certificate before employing anyone under 18. If you are under 18 and your hours look like an adult's, the 1996 Act, not the 1997 Act, is the one your complaint would cite.

Night work

The 1997 Act treats the hours between midnight and 7am as night time and sets separate, lower limits for people who regularly work a large share of their hours then. Employers must assess the health and safety risks of night work and offer a health assessment. The exact thresholds for who counts as a night worker and the lower hours limit are set in the Act; the WRC's hours of work page carries the current wording. If you work a lot of nights and your hours look high, raise it in writing and ask the employer which limit it is applying.

Breastfeeding breaks

Under the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 you are entitled to paid breastfeeding breaks, or a reduction in hours without loss of pay, for 2 years after the birth. This is separate from the ordinary break rules and is paid. The employer can choose the form (breaks or reduced hours) if facilities for breastfeeding at work are not available, but it cannot refuse the entitlement.

The right to disconnect

Searches for "right to disconnect Ireland" often assume there is a law. There is not. What exists is the WRC Code of Practice on the right to disconnect (2021). It sets out three things: the right not to routinely work outside your normal hours, the right not to be penalised for refusing to, and a duty to respect other people's right to disconnect. A breach of the Code is not a free-standing complaint. It is admissible as evidence, though, in a complaint under the 1997 Act about hours or rest, and the WRC does refer to it when an employer expects emails answered at 10pm. If out-of-hours work is pushing your average over 48 or eating into your 11 hours' rest, the complaint is under the Act and the Code supports it.

Records your employer must keep

The Act requires your employer to keep records showing the hours worked by each employee, their rest breaks and leave, and to produce them to a WRC inspector on request. If a complaint reaches a hearing and there are no records, the burden shifts to the employer to show that it complied. That is a significant advantage for an employee who kept a simple contemporaneous diary: start and finish times, breaks taken or missed, days off. Rosters, clock-in data and messages asking you to stay late all support it.

What your contract must say

The written statement of terms under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 has to state the hours the employer reasonably expects you to work per normal working day and week, and, within a month, your overtime terms and your paid leave. If your work pattern is unpredictable, the statement must also give the reference hours and days within which you can be asked to work and the minimum notice of a shift. The contract checker runs through the full list and shows which items are missing from your statement.

Overtime pay is a separate question with its own guide: overtime and the Sunday premium. Short on hours rather than long? The minimum payment when you are sent home early and the banded hours request both sit under the 2018 Act, and the contract checker flags them.

If your employer is not keeping to the rules

Most hours problems are fixed by raising them in writing. Set out the rule (the 48 hours, the 11 hours' rest, the break) and the dates on which it was not met, and ask for the roster to change. A union representative can do this with you.

If that fails, the complaint is under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 to the WRC, within 6 months of the breach, extendable to 12 months for reasonable cause. Where the breach is continuing, the 6 months run from the most recent occurrence, which is why a pattern of missed breaks is usually still in time. The WRC can order the employer to comply and can award compensation it considers just and equitable; the awards page shows the range in reported decisions. There is no fee and no costs either way. The WRC deadline checker gives the date.

You cannot be penalised for raising a working time issue or for making a complaint. If you are, that is a separate complaint under the same Act, and a dismissal for exercising a statutory right needs no minimum service under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015.

Leave and public holidays are governed by the same Act but have their own guides: annual leave entitlement and public holidays 2026.

Where this leaves you

Your hours are capped at an average of 48 a week over 4 months. You are entitled to 11 hours' rest a day, 24 hours' rest a week, a 15-minute break after 4.5 hours and 30 minutes after 6, unpaid unless your contract says otherwise. Under-18s and night workers have stricter rules, breastfeeding breaks are paid, and the right to disconnect is a Code rather than a right. Start with the contract checker: if your written terms do not state your expected hours, breaks and overtime terms, that is the first gap to raise, and it often opens up the conversation about the roster itself.