Overtime is where most agency pay queries start. One client pays time and a half after eight hours a day, another only after 39 hours a week, and a third pays nothing extra at all. All three can be lawful. This is how overtime works for agency and temp workers in Ireland, and what an agency has to get right each week.
Is overtime pay a legal right?
No. Irish law sets no statutory overtime rate and no general obligation to pay extra for hours beyond the normal working week. The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 limits how many hours can be worked. It does not say what those hours must be paid.
So where does the obligation come from?
- The contract. If the worker's terms or the client's agreed terms set an overtime rate, it must be paid.
- Sector orders. Some sectors have legally binding orders that set overtime rates, such as construction, contract cleaning and security.
- Equal treatment for agency workers. Under the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012, an agency worker is entitled to the same basic pay, and the same overtime, shift, unsocial hours and Sunday premiums, as if the client had hired them directly to do the same job.
The equal treatment rule is the one that catches agencies. If the client's own staff get time and a half after 39 hours, the temp working beside them is entitled to it too. The agency needs each client's overtime rules in writing before the assignment starts.
The 48-hour limit
A worker's average working week cannot exceed 48 hours. It is an average, usually taken over four months, so a single 55-hour week is not a breach on its own. Workers cannot opt out of the limit. For an agency, the risk is a worker placed with more than one client, where no single client sees the full picture.
Daily or weekly: how clients define overtime
Because the law does not define overtime, every client defines it differently. The common patterns are:
- Daily: overtime starts after a set number of hours in a day, often eight.
- Weekly: overtime starts after a set number of hours in the week, often 39.
- Tiered: time and a half for the first hours of overtime, then double time.
- Different pay and bill rates: the multiplier paid to the worker is not always the multiplier charged to the client.
Unpaid breaks have to come off before any of this is calculated. Workers are entitled to a 15-minute break after four and a half hours and a 30-minute break after six hours, and these do not have to be paid.
Sundays and public holidays
Sunday work is treated differently from ordinary overtime. If Sunday working is not already reflected in the rate of pay, the worker is entitled to something extra for it, such as a premium, an allowance or paid time off. Public holidays have their own rules, covered in public holiday pay for agency and temp workers.
Records
Employers must keep records of hours worked for three years. For an agency that means the signed timesheet, and ideally a record of how each overtime figure was reached, because pay queries often arrive weeks after the shift.
Overtime for agency workers — summary
- No statutory overtime rate in Ireland
- Overtime pay comes from the contract, a sector order or equal treatment with the client's own staff
- Agency workers get the same overtime premium as a direct hire doing the same job
- Average working week capped at 48 hours, with no opt-out
- Each client defines its own thresholds: daily, weekly or tiered
- Unpaid breaks come off before overtime is calculated
- Keep working time records for three years
This article is general information, not legal advice. The Workplace Relations Commission publishes the current rules. Related: paper timesheets versus online timesheets.