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Letter to your employer about unpaid wages or holiday pay (Ireland)
Ireland · in English · for employees
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Made for use in Ireland
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For an employee in Ireland, still working or already gone, who has not been paid wages, holiday pay, public holiday pay or pay for leave untaken on leaving. The letter sets out each sum and the total, recalls the Payment of Wages Act 1991 and the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, and asks for payment within 14 days with a payslip. If you are not paid, the next step is a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission, free and online, within six months. Hand it in or email it.
- Made for use in Ireland
- Last updated November 3, 2026
- Document in English
Published byDocMuse
When to use this document
- My employer in Ireland has not paid my last wages and keeps saying the money is coming.
- I resigned from my job in Ireland and the employer refuses to pay the holidays I never took.
- My payslip in Ireland is short and nobody will explain the deduction from my pay.
- I want to put my employer in Ireland on notice before I bring a complaint to the WRC.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Employee
- Employee's address
- Town and county (e.g. Ennis, Co. Clare; or Dublin 8)
- Your Eircode
- Date
- Person you are writing to, as you would address them (e.g. Ms Byrne)
- Employer
- Employer's postal address (street, town and county, and Eircode on separate lines)
- Job title
- Each sum owed: the period, the kind of pay (wages, holiday or public holiday pay) and the gross amount
- Total owed, gross (in euros, the figure only)
- Date your employment ended (if it has)
Common questions
- Is my employer in Ireland obliged to pay me for holidays I did not take before leaving?
- Yes. Under section 23 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, an employee whose employment ends is paid for annual leave earned and not taken. Public holidays falling in the last weeks can also be due. Holidays cannot be forced into your notice period unless the employer set those dates in the ordinary way. The payment comes with your final pay, shown on the payslip.
- How long do I have to complain to the WRC about unpaid wages?
- Six months from the date of the breach, such as the payday that was missed. The Workplace Relations Commission can extend that to 12 months if you show reasonable cause for the delay, so do not rely on it. The complaint form is free and online at workplacerelations.ie. Send this letter first if you can, and keep it as evidence of the amount you asked for.
- What can the WRC order my employer to pay?
- An adjudication officer decides whether the Payment of Wages Act or the Organisation of Working Time Act was breached. For an unlawful deduction, the employer can be ordered to pay you compensation; for a breach of the working time rules, compensation of up to two years' pay. Either side may appeal to the Labour Court. Enforcement is through the District Court if the employer still does not pay.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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