Employment law is devolved in Northern Ireland, and holiday rules have diverged from Great Britain since 2024.
This guide separates what is settled from what genuinely is not, because on this topic several sources state things more confidently than the evidence supports — and one of them is likely to be wrong.
What is settled
The core entitlement is the same. 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave, capped at 28 days for someone working five days a week or more. Identical to Great Britain.
Northern Ireland has 10 bank holidays, the most of any UK nation — the standard eight plus St Patrick’s Day on 17 March and the Battle of the Boyne on 12 July. As elsewhere in the UK, there is no automatic right to take them off or to be paid extra for working them, and employers may count them within the 5.6 weeks.
Rolled-up holiday pay is not permitted in Northern Ireland. This is clear. The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, which legalised rolled-up holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers, extend to Great Britain only. In Northern Ireland holiday pay must still be paid when leave is actually taken.
If you work in Northern Ireland and your payslip shows a separate holiday pay line added to each period’s pay, that is worth querying.
What is not settled
Whether the 12.07% accrual method applies.
In Great Britain, for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, irregular hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they actually work. That reversed the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel.
Whether Northern Ireland introduced an equivalent provision is genuinely contested. Some sources state that parallel regulations were made with the same commencement date. Others note that the 2023 Regulations extend to Great Britain only and that Northern Ireland therefore continues to follow the Harpur Trust position, under which part-year workers receive the full 5.6 weeks based on average earnings rather than a pro-rated accrual.
These produce materially different answers for the same worker. For someone working only part of the year, the Harpur Trust method is significantly more generous.
We are not going to pick one and present it as fact. If you need a figure you can rely on, contact the Labour Relations Agency, which provides free advice in Northern Ireland and is the appropriate authority on this.
Our holiday calculator will produce an accrual figure if you select Northern Ireland, but it displays a warning alongside it saying exactly this.
Why the divergence exists
Employment law is transferred to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Where Westminster legislates for employment matters, it generally does so for Great Britain only, and Northern Ireland legislates separately.
Periods when the Assembly is not sitting can mean changes made in Great Britain are not mirrored, or are mirrored later. The result is that Northern Ireland employment law sometimes tracks Great Britain closely and sometimes lags by years.
Redundancy is a clearer example of the same pattern: Northern Ireland uses the same formula but sets its own statutory limits. For 2026/27 the weekly cap is £783 against £751 in Great Britain, and the maximum is £23,490 against £22,530.
What this means in practice
If you are a regular hours worker in Northern Ireland, nothing above affects you. 5.6 weeks applies, capped at 28 days, and our calculator gives the same answer it would anywhere in the UK.
If you are an irregular hours or part-year worker in Northern Ireland, the method used to calculate your entitlement is genuinely uncertain and the difference can be substantial. Ask your employer which basis they are using, and check it with the Labour Relations Agency.
If you are an employer in Northern Ireland, do not assume Great Britain guidance applies. Rolled-up holiday pay in particular is a real risk — it is now routine in Great Britain and is not lawful in Northern Ireland.
Other Northern Ireland differences worth knowing
- Redundancy limits are set separately, currently higher than Great Britain
- Student loans — Northern Ireland students are on Plan 1, with a lower repayment threshold than Plan 2 or Plan 4
- Income tax and National Insurance are the same as England and Wales; only Scotland diverges on income tax
- The Labour Relations Agency performs the role Acas performs in Great Britain
We would like to fix this page
If you have a definitive answer on the 12.07% question in Northern Ireland — particularly from the Labour Relations Agency or a Northern Ireland employment practitioner — please get in touch. We would rather publish a clear answer than an honest hedge, and we will update this page and the calculator when we have one.
Sources
- Holidays and holiday pay — nidirect
- The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 — legislation.gov.uk
- Labour Relations Agency — LRA
Checked against source on 30 August 2026. This is general guidance, not legal advice. On the contested point above, take advice from the Labour Relations Agency rather than relying on this page.
Written by Nathan Cole
I built the calculators on HoursHQ and check every statutory figure against GOV.UK, Acas and the legislation itself before it goes live. Where the law is genuinely unclear, I say so rather than guessing.