Health Service - Shorter Working Year Scheme questions

Hi Chris,

its weird that you haven't received any reply from payroll for SWY scheme.. I work in HSE payroll, so will try to answer these:

-Pro-rata would be better, but health staff do not have access to the civil service “What if I” calculator. Is there an equivalent one for health staff that could tell me by how much my take-home pay would decrease?

I have an excel simple net pay calculator 2024, not sure if this is available outside payroll. Payroll should have this and should calculate what if for employees.

-What happens to PRSI contributions? Do I need to make these through Revenue separately?

as you are taking the leave, you are not making any PRSI contributions, our payroll system will give you J class PRSI. The circular says below: contact DEASP to clarify.

'Staff should note that, under PRSI rules, a person availing of special leave is not earning during the period of leave and is not, therefore, making PRSI contributions1. Staff availing of special leave should contact the Department of Social Protection to clarify their individual position. It is the responsibility of the person availing of the scheme to make arrangements to ensure that any voluntary contributions (e.g. health insurance, savings plans, etc.) normally deducted from salary continue to be paid'

-What about pension contributions? Do I need to arrange these also?

-What about VHI contributions? I make these through my pay slip as it stands – would I need to do this separately or would some magic happen to pay multiple contributions through one pay slip?

as above, VHI deduction that is normally deducted through payroll needs to be paid separately.

- For annual leave: Say 30 days worth over a 52.25 week year – does this just reduce pro rata to (52.25 – 6) weeks?

Annual leave and public holidays - see copy/paste from the circular:

Subject to the provisions of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (“the Act”), the annual leave allocation of a participant may be reduced to take account of the period of special unpaid leave.

Subject to the provisions of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (“the Act”), the annual leave allocation of a participant may be reduced to take account of the period of special unpaid leave. Annual Leave - Full Time Staff: Persons serving in a full time capacity who avail of special leave will, in the absence of any other additional unpaid leave, be entitled to a minimum of 20 days annual leave. Staff with an annual leave allowance in excess of 20 days will have their allowance reduced on a pro rata basis. However it must be noted that if no other unpaid time off is taken, the officer will still receive 4 working weeks (20 days) as a statutory entitlement.

Hope this helps

Hi Chris,

I’m wondering how this went for you, because I work for a Section 38 and I applied for this leave which was signed off on by my line manager and the regional manager, but was thrown a curveball as HR then told me that my organisation doesn’t offer this leave 🤯 So I queried it and have been in touch with my Union. I got word from them that an ‘unofficial’ direction has been circulated within HSE saying that the SWY scheme is not to be granted for 2024…. I’d really appreciate it if you could let me know how you got on…

N/a