Public holidays

Public holidays

With Easter and Anzac Day approaching, we thought it was timely to look at employer obligations.  With the regulations around shop trading hours over the Easter break, many people think Easter Sunday is a public holiday, when in fact it isn’t. The Easter public holidays are Good Friday and Easter Monday.

The Holidays Act can be difficult to interpret, and Public Holidays have their own set of peculiarities.

Every employee is entitled to 11 public holidays in each year if they are their usual working day.  The public holidays are specified in the Holidays Act 2003. You can also require an employee to work on a public holiday if the employee’s employment agreement allows for this, and if the day “would otherwise be a working day for the employee”.

For an employee to have an entitlement to a public holiday it has to be “otherwise a working day”, that means a day that would have been a working day for the employee, but for the public holiday.

So, for a Monday-to-Friday employee, Monday would otherwise be a working day for the employee. For a rostered employee, any day on which he or she is rostered to work would, generally speaking, otherwise be a working day. This does not apply, however, to truly casual employees.

Payment for public holidays

If the public holiday falls on a day that WOULD normally be a working day for the employee:

• If the employee does NOT work, then they must be paid the relevant daily pay for that day
• If the employee does work, then they entitled to the greater of:
  • The portion of the employee’s relevant daily pay or average daily pay (less any penal rates) that relates to the time actually worked on the day plus half that amount again; or
  • The portion of the employee’s relevant daily pay that relates to the time actually worked on that day
  • The employee would also be entitled to a full day alternative holiday

If the public holiday falls on day that is NOT a usual working day, but the employee AGREES to work they will be entitled to the greater of:

• The portion of the employee’s relevant daily pay or average daily pay (less any penal rates) that relates to the time actually worked on the day plus half that amount again; or
• The portion of the employee’s relevant daily pay that relates to the time actually worked on that day

• The employee would NOT be entitled to an alternative holiday

Employees on call

Public holiday entitlements depend on the type of call-out arrangement.

If the employee:

• Is called out, they’re entitled to at least time and a half for the time worked (plus a full day’s paid alternative holiday if this would have been a usual working day)
• Has to limit their activities so they are unable enjoy a full holiday, e.g. the employee is required to stay at home all day but is not called out, the employee is entitled to a full days alternative holiday if they would have otherwise worked on that day.
• Is on call but doesn’t have to limit activities e.g. if the employee can choose whether or not to accept the callout, then they only get an alternative holiday if they accept the call out and it would otherwise have been a working day, in this instance they would also receive at least time and a half for the time they worked.
• Is on call but is not called out or chooses not to accept the call-out, but they would have otherwise worked on that day, they would be entitled to their relevant daily pay or average daily pay, for the public holiday.

This doesn’t apply to an employee who is employed only to be on call on public holidays and all employees would be entitled to any on-call/availability allowance in addition to the above.

Mondayising

Although Mondayising doesn’t apply to Anzac Day this year it caused a lot of confusion initially.

‘Mondayising’ of public holidays means that if the public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday then:

• For employees who would not otherwise work on that Saturday or Sunday, the public holiday should be treated as falling on the following Monday.
• For employees who would otherwise work on that Saturday or Sunday, the public holiday should be treated as falling on that day.

The same applies for Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day or the 2nd of January when they fall on a weekend. If the relevant Saturday or Sunday would not “otherwise be a working day for the employee”, the public holidays are transferred to the following Monday and Tuesday.

All other holidays are observed either when they fall or when the parties agree they will be observed.