🇮🇪 Working time records in Ireland

The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 requires employers to keep records showing that the Act is being complied with, and to retain them for at least three years from the date they are made.

This is not legal advice. It is general information based on the rules cited. Before making decisions that affect your company, consult an employment lawyer or an accountant in Ireland.

In one line Retention: 3 years · Basis: Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, s. 25

Where they are kept and what for

Records are kept at the premises where the employee works or, if they work in more than one place, where their work is principally directed. They must show whether the Act’s rules on working hours, rest and annual leave are being complied with.

If there are no records

If an employer fails to keep records as the Act requires, the burden of proving compliance falls on the employer. In a complaint before the Workplace Relations Commission, missing records count against the company.

Who keeps the records

Keeping the records is the employer’s obligation. Puntual stores clock-ins on its server according to your plan — six months with the one-time purchase, for as long as a subscription is active — and lets you download them at any time with an annex proving they have not been altered, so your company can keep them for as long as the law requires.

Official source

Revised text of the Act, published by the Law Reform Commission of Ireland.

Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, s. 25 — Law Reform Commission ↗

How Puntual handles it

Puntual applies the rules for Ireland as soon as you pick the country when registering your company. Clock-ins are never edited — a correction is added next to the original, together with who approved it — and the export includes an annex that lets anyone verify nothing has been altered, without depending on us. Clocking in also works offline, which is exactly when the others fail.

See Puntual