In the blink of an eye, 2023 is nearly over!  It feels like time is speeding up on us so it’s more important than ever to make the most of the upcoming time off whether it’s just the public holidays, a longer period of summer leave or even just a few days here and there. 

As we head into that magnificent time of the year in which many of us get to take delight in not knowing what the day is let alone the date, it’s time for HR Staff n’ Stuff to take all the confusion out of what’s a public holiday and what’s not and what that actually means for those of you who remain operational.

Key Christmas public holidays by State or Territory

X = not a gazetted public holiday.  Normal rates as per award/EBA as per the day apply.

The big questions – who gets paid and what do they get paid?

As always, it is extremely important that you pay your employees correctly so to help you work out what needs to happen with all the additional public holidays, read on…

If your full or part time employee usually works on a day that is deemed a Public Holiday, it is categorised as a paid day without working.

If the public holiday falls on a day that an employee is not normally rostered to work, you don’t need to do anything. 

For example, your part time truck drivers works Monday and Tuesday every week in Victoria.  You will need to pay them normal rates for both the 25^th and 26^th December, as well as the 1st January.  These days are not deducted from their annual leave balance as they are gazetted public holidays.  You do not need to pay them for 26^th January as it is a Friday and that is not a normal workday for them. 

If your business has a shutdown period that has been communicated clearly and as per any award / EBA requirements, your team can use their annual leave (if accrued) or unpaid leave (no leave accrued and if agreed by the employee) for those days on which you are closed for business, and it is not a public holiday. 

But what if I swap the roster around?

If you have a part time employee who usually works Monday and Tuesday, you can’t simply ‘swap the days’ and roster the person to work Thursday and Friday instead.  You are legally obligated to pay your employee for these days, and they are entitled to enjoy their time off.  If you require the employee to work on the actual days, then penalty rates apply. If you request them to work two days later in the week, they are still entitled to be paid their normal rate for the Monday and Tuesday, and then the applicable rate for the additional days based on your award. Some awards require overtime rates to apply for days worked that are in additional to the contracted usual hours, so check your contract and your award!

If you are still unsure as to how to apply your respective Award or EBA, contact the HR Staff n’ Stuff team for advice now so you can have it all sorted before the holidays swing into action.