FAQ’s on Payroll

Revision of Teacher Salaries under the Public Service Agreement 2024 – 2026

The most recent guideline on ancillary staff pay is Financial Guideline P04 – 2020/2021.

€13.00 (from 1st January 2019)

Increase of 10% over 4 years ie 2.5% p.a. in hourly pay rate/annual salary to be implemented with effect from 1st January 2016 to 2019 (Payable to those who are NOT on a salary scale)

€12.70

This would depend on when the cleaners started – see worked example below.

Example – A school cleaner recruited on 01.01.17 at the national minimum wage rate of €9.25 should receive the following increase as per the circulars referenced below

See below for National Minimum rates applicable for each year and apply to the increases due at that date.

The Ancillary grant is not ringfenced, Capitation and ancillary grant are to be considered a common grant for BOM to use as it requires. Cleaners wages should come out of Capitation.

Refer to contracts of employment but most casual employees are entitled to holiday pay at 8% of hours worked.  They are also entitled to bank holiday pay if they have worked at least 40 hours total in the previous 5 weeks. If the bank holiday falls on a normal working day, you should pay the normal hours worked on that day, however if the bank holiday falls on a day not normally worked, they are entitled to a 1/5 of their normal weekly working hours. Holiday pay should be itemised separately on payslips.

An employee is regarded as having worked on a day of annual leave or on a public holiday, the hours he would have worked on that day, if it had been a normal workday.  When calculating hours worked, credit must be given for the normal hours, which would have been worked on a day of annual leave or a public holiday, if that day had been a normal working day. (Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, section 19(5))

Yes. During lay-off employees are still employed by the board. This means that they are entitled to pay for any public holidays that occur during the first 13 weeks of lay-off. However, part-time employees must have worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday to receive this payment.

Any queries relating to reduction of hours or other changes to working conditions or contracts should be referred to management bodies or solicitors.  Legal advice should always be sought for changes to contracts.

Review what their contract states.  Ancillary staff may claim for maternity according to social welfare rules.  They are not entitled to additional/top up pay unless their contracts state such.

If you have a family crisis the Parental Leave Acts 1998 and 2019 give an employee a limited right to leave from work. This is known as force majeure leave. It arises where, for urgent family reasons, the immediate presence of the employee is indispensable owing to an injury or illness of a close family member.

Force majeure leave does not give any entitlement to leave following the death of a close family member.

A close family member is defined as one of the following:

• A child or adopted child of the employee
• The husband, wife or partner of the employee
• Parent or grandparent of the employee
• Brother or sister of the employee
• Person to whom the employee has a duty of care (that is, he/she is acting in loco parentis)
• A person in a relationship of domestic dependency with the employee
• Persons of any other class (if any) as may be prescribed

The maximum amount of leave is 3 days in any 12-month period or 5 days in a 36-month period. You are entitled to be paid while you are on force majeure leave – below for more Your employer may grant you further leave.

Source Citizens information

If a member of your close family dies you have no entitlement to force majeure leave. However, you may be able to take compassionate leave. This will depend on your employment contract, the custom and practice within your workplace or it will depend on your employer’s discretion. You should check with your employer.

Source Citizens information

If you are called for jury service, generally you must attend. The Juries Act 1976 requires that an employee or an apprentice who is called for jury service be given time off to attend the court. Under the Act while you are absent from work to comply with a jury summons you are entitled to be paid and you should not lose any other employment entitlements or rights. So, for example, the time spent on jury service will not mean any loss of annual leave entitlement.

Source Citizens information

Maximum Limits

• Ebikes max allowed €1,500
• Pedal Bikes max allowed €1250
• Employer must purchase the bike
• Employees can avail of the scheme every 4 years

Cycle to Work Scheme (revenue.ie)

Recording the transactions on the FSSU template

Record the payment of the invoice for the bike under the relevant wage category expense i.e. clerical wages, cleaner wages, caretaker wages etc.

Ensure your accountant is aware of the Cycle to Work scheme so they can make an adjustment in the accounts

Cycle to Work scheme nominal code to be used is 1720 Prepayments.

This would be used for the payment for the bike and the subsequent deduction on payroll.

This section mainly refers to accountants or schools using Sage/Surf.

Most people pay Class A PRSI. It applies to people in industrial, commercial and service type employment who are employed under a contract of service with a reckonable pay of €38 or more per week from employment. It also includes civil and public servants recruited from 6 April 1995.

Class A does not apply to people in insurable employment over 66 years of age. They are insurable under Class J.

Rates of Contribution from 1st October 2024

The amount of PRSI you pay will depend on your earnings and the class you are insured under.

Class A applies to people in industrial, commercial and service type employment who are employed under a contract of service with a reckonable pay of €38 or more per week from employment. It also includes civil and public servants recruited from 6 April 1995. In fact, most employees in Ireland pay PRSI Class A.  People on CE schemes pay a special contribution at Class A8/A9.

This covers employees under the age of 66 in industrial, commercial and service-type employment who have reckonable pay of €38 or more per week from all employments as well as Public Servants recruited from 6 April 1995.

            Weekly pay is the employee’s money pay plus notional pay (if applicable)

Note: A tapered employee PRSI Credit of €12 per week applies on earnings between €352.01 and €424.

Class J

This normally relates to people with reckonable pay of less than €38 per week (from all employments). However, a small number of employees are insurable at Class J, no matter how much they earn, such as employees aged 66 or over or people in subsidiary employment

• applies to people earning less than €38 per week.
• people aged over 66 or people in subsidiary employment are always insurable at Class J, no matter how much they earn.
• Subsidiary employment for Class J is for example, people who are insurable at Class, D (e.g. teachers) in their main employment, and those carrying out state exam work.

• Payments related to the State Examinations are all at the Class J rate

Class D applies to permanent and pensionable employees in the public service (including Teachers) recruited before 6 April 1995.

If you are earning €352 or less per week (before tax is deducted), you will not pay any social insurance. This does not mean that you are not getting a contribution. You are still covered by Class A social insurance. Your employer is paying social insurance on your behalf.

If you earn over €352 per week, you pay 4.1% PRSI on all your earnings. A PRSI credit was introduced in 2016 which reduces the amount of PRSI payable for people earning between €352.01 and €424 per week. The credit is tapered and the amount of the credit depends on your earnings. The maximum credit is €12. For example, if you earn €352.01 per week, you will get the maximum PRSI credit of €12. On these earnings of €352.01, your PRSI charge (calculated at 4.1% of your earnings) would be €14.08. After the €12 credit is deducted, you will pay PRSI of €2.08.

If you earn between €352.01 and €424 per week, the maximum credit of €12 is reduced by one-sixth of the amount of your weekly earnings over €352.01.

You work out how much PRSI you will pay in four steps. First, calculate one-sixth of your earnings over €352.01. Then subtract this from the maximum credit of €12 to get your PRSI credit. Then calculate the basic PRSI charge at 4% of your earnings. Finally, deduct your PRSI credit from the PRSI charge. The result is the amount of PRSI you pay.

For example, for gross weekly earnings of €377:

1. Calculate one-sixth of your earnings over €352.01. €377- €352.01 = €24.99. Divided by 6 = €4.17.
2. Subtract this from the maximum credit of €12, giving you a credit of €7.83.
3. The basic PRSI charge is 4% of €377 = €15.46.
4. You will pay €7.62 PRSI weekly (€15.46 minus your €7.83 PRSI credit).

To find out more about PRSI credit and see examples, go to the Department’s website.

If the employee doesn’t earn enough to pay PRSI they will still earn an insurable week if the employer is paying the Employer PRSI – see below (citizens information 2019)

PRSI Classes 2019

PRSI Credit €12.00 worked example (source Citizensinformation.ie)

The amount of PRSI you and your employer pay will depend on your earnings and the social insurance class you are insured under.

There is no single fixed retirement age for employees. If you are employed, your retirement age is set out in your contract of employment. Some contracts of employment have a mandatory retirement age (that is, the age at which you must retire), but they also have provisions for earlier retirement generally or on grounds of illness (or both). The usual retirement age in contracts of employment is 65. Many allow for early retirement from age 60 or in some cases from age 55 and most allow for early retirement on health grounds.

The mandatory retirement age is the age at which you must retire. It is usually set out in your contract of employment. There are still some employments where the contract of employment does not include a mandatory retirement age but they are unusual.

Equality legislation: Discrimination on the grounds of age for everyone aged over 16 is banned under employment equality legislation. However, employers are still allowed to set minimum recruitment ages of 18 or under and to set retirement ages in employment contracts. Since 1 January 2016, an employer may set a mandatory retirement age provided it is objectively justified. The law covering this is of the Employment Equality Act 2015 (which amended section 34 by the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1998).

The Code of Practice on Longer Working Order 2017 (pdf) provides guidance on the best practices to follow during the engagement between employers and employees in the run up to retirement including responding to requests to work beyond the retirement age. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission have published guidelines on retirement and fixed term contracts. The guidelines aim to ensure that older workers, who wish to continue in employment, are not discriminated against in the workplace. They also provide guidance on using fixed-term contracts beyond the compulsory retirement age.

If person does not meet self-employed criteria they must be put on payroll.

Revenue issue tax credits via RPN’s it is not possible to manually apply tax credits.

FSSU strongly recommends using payroll software or outsourcing. FSSU does not advise using manual payroll method.

The Revenue would prefer that payments to once off trainers be processed through the payroll. –

Revenue eBrief No. 161/19

Payments to part-time lecturers

Tax Duty Manual Part 05-01-11 outlines Revenue’s position with regards to the tax treatment of part-time lecturers/teachers/trainers. With effect from 1 September 2019 lecture fees in respect of part time or “once off” lecturers should now be taxed through the PAYE system i.e. paid net of statutory deductions for income tax, USC and PRSI.