Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977

Holidays and holiday remuneration N.I.

8.—(1) Workers employed in agriculture shall be entitled to be allowed by their employers holidays of such duration as may be specified in a direction of the Board.

(2) A direction under this Article that a worker shall be entitled to be allowed a holiday of any duration—

(a) shall not be made unless the minimum rate of wages to be paid in respect of the period of the holiday has been or is being fixed under this Order for the worker;

(b) where the holiday is specified otherwise than in pursuance of paragraph (3) and otherwise than by reference to a particular day or days, shall provide for the duration of the holiday's being related to the duration (as defined by order of the Board) of the period for which the worker has been employed or engaged to be employed by the employer who is to allow the holiday; and

(c) subject to sub-paragraphs ( a) and ( b), may make provision as to the times at which or the periods within which, and the circumstances in which, the holiday shall be allowed.

(3) In the exercise of its powers under this Article the Board shall—

(a) so far as is reasonably practicable, secure a weekly half-holiday for workers;

(b) ensure that the entitlement of a worker to holidays by virtue of a direction of the Board under this Article is on the whole not less favourable than his entitlement to holidays would have been if Part I of the Schedule to the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act (Northern Ireland) 1939 [1939 c.25] and the Agricultural Worker's Holidays Act (Northern Ireland) 1956 [1956 c.3] had not been repealed by the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 [1967 c.15] .

(4) If any employer who is by virtue of this Article required to allow to a worker a holiday of any duration fails to allow to him a holiday of that duration, the employer shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction in respect of each such offence to a fine not exceeding[F1 level 2 on the standard scale]F1 .

(5) Any worker who is, by virtue of this Article, entitled to be allowed a holiday shall receive remuneration in respect of the period of that holiday (in this Order referred to as “holiday remuneration”), and the powers of the Board with respect to the fixing of minimum rates of wages shall, without prejudice to any other power exercisable by the Board in that behalf, include power—

(a) to fix separate minimum rates of wages by way of holiday remuneration;

(b) to make provision—

(i) with respect to the times at which, and the conditions subject to which, holiday remuneration shall accrue and shall become payable; and

(ii) for securing that any holiday remuneration which has accrued to a worker during his employment by an employer shall, in the event of his ceasing to be employed by that employer before he becomes entitled to be allowed a holiday by him, nevertheless become payable by the employer to the worker.

(6) Without prejudice to Article 14, the provisions of this Order and of any regulations made thereunder relating to the fixing, cancelling and varying of minimum rates of wages and to the making and enforcement of orders for those purposes shall apply in relation to holidays as well as to holiday remuneration as they apply in relation to such rates.

F1 1984 NI 3