Public Holiday entitlements easter 2012

Good Friday

This year the Easter Public Holiday falls on Monday the 9^th of April. It is important for all employers to be aware that Good Friday which falls on the 06^th of April, is not a Public Holiday and employees are not entitled, under national employment legislation, to any additional payment or time off in lieu of this day. This is one issue which often raises a degree of uncertainty for employers who mistakenly believe that Good Friday is a Public Holiday.

• If an employee is looking for the day off then employers can allow this if they so wish but in doing so employers should inform employees that it is to be taken as an annual leave day or, alternatively, an unpaid day.
• Conversely, if the employer is closing that day and they have employees that normally work on Fridays then the employees are entitled to be compensated for this day. An employer can look to deduct this from the employee’s annual leave quota but if this is being done then the employer is required to have given the employee at least 30 days’ notice that they are required to take Good Friday off.

Public Holiday Entitlements

In order to ensure that all employees do obtain their required entitlement, the following is a list of the methods of remuneration as required by the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997:

All employees are entitled to one of the following-

1. A paid day off within a month of the public holiday
2. An additional day of annual leave
3. An additional day's pay
4. The nearest church holiday to the public holiday as a paid day off.

Most employers opt to go with either (1) or (4) from the above; an additional day’s pay if the employee works or a paid day off if they don’t work. Accordingly, Peninsula have outlined below how to calculate an additional day’s pay for full-time and part-time employees.

Public Holiday Calculations

Full-Time & Salaried Employees

The process is quite straight-forward in this circumstance. On the basis that their daily and weekly rates of pay do not vary, the following will apply:

• If the public holiday falls on a day the employee normally works and the company is closed on that day then the employee gets a paid day off at their normal daily rate.
• If the Public Holiday falls on a day the employee doesn’t normally work then they are entitled to 1/5 of their normal working week’s wage as their entitlement.
• If the Public Holiday falls on a day the employee normally works and they are required to work on that Public Holiday then they are entitled to an additional day’s pay on top of payment received for hours actually worked. However, one key issue that normally arises is that employers tend to misinterpret “an additional day’s pay” as meaning “double-time”. While they appear similar they do mean something different. For example, an employee might always works 9 hours a day but may be asked to work for just 6 hours on the Public Holiday as the employer is shutting the doors early. For this full-time employee, s/he is entitled to be paid for the 6 hours actually worked plus “an additional day’s pay” which in his case would be 9 hours as that is what he normally works. Thus he is entitled to (9+6) = 15 hours pay. If the employer paid “double-time” (i.e. 6 hours x 2) he would have only been paid 12 hours pay. This is essentially an under payment.  

Part-Time Employees

Part time employees can be divided into two categories, those with fixed hours and those with variable hours. All part-time employees are entitled to public holiday pay if they have worked at least an aggregate total of 40 hours in the preceding 5 weeks:

The entitlements are one of the following: 1/5^th of the last working week before the holiday or additional days’ pay based on the last working day before the holiday. For example:

• Fixed Hours: Fixed hours relates to a part-timer who works the same hours every week and these hours are consistent from one day to the next (e.g. employee works 5 hours a day, 9am to 2pm, Monday to Thursday).
  • If the Public Holiday falls on a day they are normally required to work but the employee is not required to work then the employee gets a paid day off of 5 hours.
  • Similarly, if they work the day then their additional day’s pay will be 5 hours.
  • However, if the Public Holiday falls on a day the employee doesn’t normally work (i.e. Fri-Sun in our example) then the employee is entitled to 1/5 of their last working week before the Public Holiday for their paid day off. In our example 1/5 equals (20 hours divided by 5 = 4 hours pay).
     
• Variable Hours: Variable hours work relates to an employee who works different hours from one day to the next e.g. an employee who works 4 hours on a Tuesday, 6 hours on a Saturday and 8 hours on a Sunday. The employee might do these same hours every week or they might do something completely random each week but as long as the hours differ from one day to another then they are “variable”.
  • If this employee is getting a paid day off then that paid day off is 1/5 of their last working week falling the week before the Public Holiday. In the scenario given above this equals (18 divided by 5) = 3.6 hours for the paid day off.
  • If the employee is asked to work the Public Holiday then their additional day’s pay is equal to the hours worked on their last working day before the Public Holiday.
  • So if the employee works their normal 6 hours on Easter Monday then they are entitled 6 hours for hours worked plus their last working day’s pay which is 4 hours worked on the Tuesday [(6+4) = 10 hours pay];

Piece Rate, Productivity and Commission Based Workers

• If the Public Holiday falls on a day that this type of employee works or is  normally required to work then they are entitled to a public holiday entitlement of a day’s pay which is calculated on the basis of their average working day over the 13 week period ending immediately before the public holiday.
• If the employee is not required to work on the Public Holiday then they are entitled to a public holiday entitlement which is equal to 1/5 of their average weekly pay (excluding any pay for overtime) calculated over the period of 13 week period ending immediately before that public holiday.

Entitlements are due to all employees, not just full time permanent staff. Employers should seek advice from Peninsula Business Services if they have any further queries in relation to Public Holiday pay and entitlement. Please phone the 24 Hour Advice Service on 01 8555050 and one of our experienced advisors will be happy to assist.