Leisure and travel services companies

Minimum wage for staff at leisure and travel services companies can be seen here.

Full employment rate is 7 hours and 10 min. per day (7.16), which totals 35 hours and 50 min. per week (35.83), which totals 155 hours and 18 min. per month (155.3) in active working hours, i.e. worked time without refreshment breaks.
If workers take their contractual refreshment breaks, then working hours shall be lengthened accordingly. Daily working hours are then 7 hours and 45 min. per day (7.75), which totals 38 hours and 45 min. per week (38.75), which totals 167 hours and 56 min. per month (167.94).

Daytime working hours are from 7:00 to 17:00 on working days.
After-hour rates must be paid for work on Saturdays or Sundays.
Nighttime rates must be paid for work on contractually-defined holidays.
Holiday rates must be paid for work on major public holidays.
An employee that works beyond the number of hours of daytime-hour obligations per month (167.94 hours per month) shall be paid overtime at the overtime rate.

Permitted deviations due to work obligations on public holidays and major public holidays – An agreement may be reached in the employment contract to pay the employee a 45% supplement on top of the daytime wages on public holidays and a 90% supplement on major public holidays. The employee must then earn a winter holiday.

Breaks should amount to 5 minutes for every hour worked and should be arranged by agreement between the employees and the employer. Breaks should generally be 15 minutes consecutively.

Work performed during breaks will be compensated with additional or overtime pay, or by reducing the working hours accordingly.

Employees in shift work that are obliged to work on defined public holidays and major public holidays that fall from Monday to Friday earn 12 winter holiday days per year (94.2 compulsory working hours based on full-time employment). A list of defined public holidays and major public holidays is below. It doesn’t matter if shift workers are working or on shift leave on public holidays and major public holidays; they accumulate winter holidays.

The right is based on the fact that the working year of shift workers is being equated with day workers who deliver their working week during the daywork period from Monday to Friday.

An employee in traditional daytime work gets a holiday on defined public holidays and major public holidays but still gets paid daytime work for those days, even if they are not worked. An employee who does shift work is obliged to work on these holidays and therefore does not receive a holiday, but in return, they collect winter holidays as a leave to take later, which they would otherwise have received if they had not been doing shift work.

The accumulation of winter holidays is based on work from October to October each year, but they must be taken in the period from 1 October to 1 May each year. It should be noted that the accumulation of winter holidays is not one day for each month worked. This is a common misunderstanding, because there are 12 holiday days, the same number as months in a year. What is correct is that winter holidays are earned based on the number of public holidays in each working month, which makes a total of 12 days a year. Thus, an employee who only works three months, e.g. April, May and June, can earn 7 winter holiday days based on the year 2021, while another employee who works for three months, e.g. September, October and November, does not earn any holidays.

If the workplace is closed on the days referred to above, or if days off are granted, then the corresponding number of days shall be deducted from the additional winter holiday days, except in the case of employees who are owed accumulated leave related to shift work.

If the winter holidays have not been used at retirement, they shall be settled with the standard wages along with annual holiday pay.

Public holidays include all the holidays of the Church of Iceland, i.e. Maundy Thursday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday and Boxing Day, as well as the First Day of Summer and 1 May.
Major public holidays are New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Whit Sunday, 17 June, the August Bank Holiday (first Monday in August), Christmas Day and the period after 12:00 noon on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

The annual holiday of employees at leisure and travel services companies is the same as in the general collective wage agreement, i.e. a minimum of 24 annual holiday days based on an entire holiday year. Further information.

Since many people who work at leisure and travel services companies do shift work, e.g. as a 2-2-3 work arrangement, it is possible to simplify the calculation of managing used annual holiday days by counting only “their” working days. Thus, 16.8 shifts is equivalent to 24 annual holiday days, because 24 annual holiday days refers to weekdays.

The 24-day annual holiday entitlement is comparable to 16.8 shifts based on 2-2-3 shift arrangements.
The 25-day annual holiday entitlement is comparable to 17.5 shifts based on 2-2-3 shift arrangements.
The 27-day annual holiday entitlement is comparable to 18.9 shifts based on 2-2-3 shift arrangements.
The 28-day annual holiday entitlement is comparable to 19.6 shifts based on 2-2-3 shift arrangements.
The 30-day annual holiday entitlement is comparable to 21 shifts based on 2-2-3 shift arrangements.