HSE staff: annual leave, sick leave, pay and procedures

If you work for the HSE, two layers of rules apply to you. Underneath is the statutory floor that every employee in Ireland has: four weeks' annual leave, 5 days' statutory sick pay, 26 weeks' maternity leave, notice by service, the WRC. On top of it sits the public service layer: the HSE's terms and conditions, the Department of Public Expenditure's circulars, the public service sick leave scheme and the national pay agreement. The public service layer is more generous on almost every point, and it is the one you will use day to day. This guide explains where each comes from and what to do when the two are in tension.

The HSE is the largest employer in the State, and "HSE staff" covers nurses and midwives, doctors, health and social care professionals, clerical and administrative grades, support staff, ambulance personnel and management. The scheme rules below apply across those grades unless a grade-specific circular says otherwise.

Annual leave by grade

Your annual leave is set by the HSE's terms and conditions of employment for your staff category, and the HSE publishes those on its HR circulars pages. Leave varies by grade and, for many grades, rises with service. The statutory minimum under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 is four working weeks, and every HSE grade sits above it.

This site does not reproduce the HSE bands, because the figure for your grade depends on your grade code, your service and in some cases the agreement your grade was recruited under, and the circulars change. The right source is the terms and conditions document for your category on the HSE site, confirmed in writing by HR if there is any doubt. What the law adds, whatever your grade, is:

• Leave is pro rata for part-time hours, under the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001.
• Leave continues to accrue while you are on sick leave, maternity leave and other statutory leave.
• Untaken leave is paid when you leave, and a public holiday within a week of leaving may be owed.
• The employer decides when leave is taken, after consulting you and taking account of your need for rest and family responsibilities, and must give you the leave within the leave year or the following six months.

The HSE leave year and carry-over rules are in the terms and conditions. If leave is refused repeatedly or lost at year end, the complaint route is the grievance procedure first and then, for the statutory part, the WRC under the 1997 Act.

The ten public holidays in 2026 are 1 January, 2 February, 17 March, 6 April, 4 May, 1 June, 3 August, 26 October, 25 December and 26 December. HSE rostered staff who work them are paid under the HSE's public holiday arrangements for their grade, which are above the four statutory options. The annual leave calculator gives you the statutory floor and the public holidays you qualify for, so you can see what the HSE layer adds.

The public service sick leave scheme

HSE staff are covered by the public service sick leave scheme made under the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Act 2013 and the regulations under it, applied to the HSE by HR circular. Its main limits are:

The four years are counted backwards from the first day of each new absence, so a long absence three years ago still counts. "Full pay" is your basic pay plus the allowances the scheme treats as pensionable.

The critical illness protocol applies where an occupational health physician certifies that your illness meets the protocol's criteria, which are broadly a serious illness or injury requiring a prolonged period of treatment or recovery. You apply through your manager and occupational health; the decision rests with management on medical advice, and there is a review mechanism if it is refused.

Temporary rehabilitation remuneration (TRR) may be paid after your paid sick leave is exhausted, where there is a reasonable prospect of your returning to work, for up to 18 months in ordinary cases and longer under the critical illness protocol. It is paid at a reduced rate based on your pension entitlement, not your salary.

Self-certified sick leave is limited to a small number of days in a rolling two-year period under the scheme; absences beyond that need a medical certificate. The exact number of self-certified days is in the HSE circular applying the scheme.

Illness Benefit. You must claim Illness Benefit from the Department of Social Protection where you qualify, and the HSE recovers it against your sick pay. In 2026 Illness Benefit is €254 a week, with three waiting days, subject to PRSI conditions. When HSE sick pay runs out, Illness Benefit continues on its own if your record qualifies.

The HSE scheme replaces the Sick Leave Act 2022 because it is, taken as a whole, more favourable than 5 days at 70% capped at €110. Where the two differ, the scheme applies. The sick pay calculator shows the statutory floor so you can see what the scheme adds.

A long absence does not end your employment, but the HSE's managing attendance policy sets review points, and an absence that exhausts paid leave and TRR can lead to a capability process or ill-health retirement. Any dismissal for incapacity still needs medical evidence, consultation, consideration of a return and of reasonable accommodation, and a fair procedure. If your illness is a disability under the Employment Equality Acts, reasonable accommodation sits alongside the scheme.

Maternity, paternity and parental leave in the HSE

The statutory position is 26 weeks' maternity leave with Maternity Benefit of €299 a week in 2026, plus 16 unpaid weeks; two weeks' paternity leave; nine weeks' parent's leave for each parent; and 26 weeks' unpaid parental leave per child before the twelfth birthday. The HSE pays full pay for the 26 weeks of maternity leave and for paternity leave under its terms and conditions, with Maternity Benefit or Paternity Benefit recovered against it, and the same approach applies to adoptive leave. Parent's leave and parental leave in the HSE follow the statutory scheme and the HSE circular on them; check the circular for whether any top-up applies to your grade.

Notice rules are the statutory ones: four weeks' written notice with a medical certificate for maternity leave, four weeks for paternity leave, six weeks for parent's leave and parental leave. The leave planner gives you the dates from a due date. Service continues through all of these for increments, leave and pension.

Pay and the public service agreement

HSE pay scales are set nationally and moved by the public service pay agreements. The Public Service Agreement 2024 to 2026, agreed in early 2024, set a series of general increases across its term, including increases on 1 February 2026 and 1 June 2026, and applied to HSE grades through Department of Health and HSE pay circulars. The HSE publishes the consolidated salary scales after each increase. Any successor agreement from mid-2026 onwards is tracked on /changes and in the updates log as it is circulated.

If a scheduled increase has not reached your payslip, or an increment has been skipped, the first step is a written query to payroll and HR citing the circular. An underpayment of an amount properly payable under your contract is a Payment of Wages Act complaint to the WRC within six months of the pay date, and each pay day is its own contravention. Unions handle most of these for members without the WRC being needed.

Grievance and disciplinary procedures

The HSE has its own grievance and disciplinary procedures, agreed with the unions, and they sit on top of the WRC Code of Practice (S.I. No. 146/2000). The grievance procedure has stages that run from your line manager to the national level, with a final stage at the WRC or Labour Court for matters that remain unresolved. The disciplinary procedure sets out the informal stage, the formal stages and the right to representation, and follows the Code: the allegation and evidence in advance, a hearing, representation, a proportionate sanction and an appeal.

Two practical points. First, use the procedure. A constructive dismissal claim, or a WRC complaint about bullying, will be judged partly on whether you gave the procedure a chance. Second, bring your union representative from the first formal meeting; HSE procedures provide for it and the representative will know the procedure better than most managers. The letter builder drafts a formal grievance if you need to start in writing.

Bullying and harassment complaints go through the HSE's dignity at work policy, which applies the 2021 bullying Code (S.I. No. 674/2020) and the Employment Equality Acts' definition of harassment.

Unions

The INMO represents nurses and midwives; Fórsa represents clerical, administrative, managerial and many health and social care professional grades; SIPTU represents support staff, healthcare assistants, ambulance personnel and others; the IMO represents doctors; the Psychiatric Nurses Association represents psychiatric nurses and, through NASRA, ambulance staff; and the MLSA represents medical scientists. The HSE recognises these unions and negotiates with them nationally. Membership gives you representation in the HSE procedures and at the WRC at no charge. See which union covers your grade and the ICTU directory.

When the WRC is the route

The public service layer resolves most disputes internally. The WRC remains the route for a statutory right the internal process has not delivered: unpaid wages or allowances, annual leave or public holidays, a working-time breach, discrimination on any of the nine grounds, penalisation for a protected disclosure, or a dismissal. The six-month clock runs from the contravention whatever stage the internal procedure has reached, and the adjudicator can extend it to twelve months only for reasonable cause; waiting for an internal outcome is not usually enough on its own. The deadline checker gives the date. Fixed-term HSE contracts and the move to a contract of indefinite duration after four years follow the general rule, which the teachers and SNAs page also touches on for the education sector. Staff on HSE-funded contracts with section 38 and section 39 agencies are employed by the agency, not the HSE, and the agency's own terms apply, though the WRC route is the same.

For stress and mental health absence, the HSE scheme is the sick leave scheme above, used with a medical certificate; the HSE also has an employee assistance programme and occupational health service that can be accessed without a referral from your manager.

Where this leaves you

Your HSE leave, sick pay and maternity pay all sit above the statutory floor, and the figure that matters is the one in the HSE terms and conditions for your grade, read with the public service sick leave scheme's 3 months full and 3 months half pay in a rolling four years. Use the annual leave calculator to see the statutory entitlement by the three legal methods, your accrual to date and the public holidays you qualify for; whatever it shows, the HSE layer gives you more, and the difference is what your contract and the circulars add. If you work in the wider public service rather than the HSE, the civil and public service page covers the same scheme as it applies there, and healthcare assistants and home carers covers the care sector outside the HSE.