More than 40% of Irish workers not utilising their full holiday entitlements

More than 40 per cent of Irish workers are failing to make use of their full holiday entitlements, while nearly a fifth did not use five days of their annual leave last year, according to recruitment agency FRS Recruitment.
The company’s latest annual leave survey noted that while holiday entitlements are one of the main points of negotiation between employees and employers, an increasing number of workers are failing to utilise them.
It found that more than four in 10 Irish employees (42 per cent) did not use their full holiday entitlements last year. A surprisingly high one in five (19 per cent) did not take five days of annual leave or more, which in business terms represents a week’s leave, while 15 per cent said they did not use four days. The survey of just under 1,900 Irish-based employees indicated that 17 per cent had three days which went unused last year, while 19 per cent left two days of leave unused.
A quarter of employees (24 per cent) said the longest period of annual leave they took was less than a week, while 38 per cent stated their longest break was two weeks.
“After salaries holidays and annual leave entitlements are arguably one of the main points of negotiation between employees and employers,” FRS Recruitment’s general manager Lynne McCormack said.
“Yet despite their importance, an increasing number of these sought after days of leave are going unused by employees,” she said. “Of even greater note is the number of holidays that people are not taking. One in five of us say they did not take five days or more leave last year. Effectively that’s a week of holidays going unused.
“Not taking their annual leave may suit some people, perhaps they receive payment in lieu or wish to carry over their leave to the following year. However more than three out of 10 people say they lose any days which go unused,” Ms McCormack said. “When we do holiday it is also interesting to see the length of breaks we take. The most popular choice is a maximum of two weeks in one go, which was taken by four out of 10 people last year. Yet for one in four people their longest break was less than one week.”