Understanding the Holidays Act over the Festive Season

The festive season can be a challenging time of year for employers, as you try to grapple with the complexities of the Holidays Act and understand your employee’s entitlements.  The Holidays Act 2003 was amended earlier this year, key changes to this act included the ability to transfer the observance of public holidays, changes to the calculation of payments for public holidays, alternative holidays, sick leave and bereavement leave and that employees will be entitled to cash up one week of their annual holidays per year.

The public holidays over the festive season have different arrangements to other public holidays as follows:

- If the holiday falls on a weekend, and the employee doesn’t normally work on the weekend, the holiday is transferred to the following Monday or Tuesday so that the employee still gets a paid day off if the employee would usually work on these days.
- If the holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday and the employee normally works on that day, the holiday remains at the traditional day and the employee is entitled to that day off on pay.

Public holidays during a close-down period
If a business has a closedown period that includes public holidays (as can happen over the Christmas and New Year period) then the employee is entitled to paid public holidays if they would be otherwise working days for them.

Note: An employee cannot be entitled to more than four public holidays over the Christmas and New Year period, regardless of their work pattern.

This year Christmas Day (25 December) and New Year’s Day (1 January) fall on a Sunday. Boxing Day (26 December) and the day after New Year’s Day (2 January) fall on a Monday.

Monday to Friday workers
As Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fall on a Sunday, the holiday is transferred to the following Tuesday (27 December and 3 January).
Boxing Day and the day after New Year’s Day will be observed on the days they fall (Monday 26 December and Monday 2 January).

Weekend workers
If you or your employees would normally work on the Sunday that Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fall on this year, the public holiday is observed on the day it falls (Sunday 25 December and Sunday 1 January). This means the employee is entitled to that day off on pay.

Casual and on-call workers
Casual/on-call workers are entitled to receive payment for a public holiday if it otherwise would have been a working day.  For example, if an employee can show a pattern of working on Mondays, they would more than likely be entitled to Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Transferring the observance of public holidays
Employers and employees can now agree to transfer the observance of public holidays to another working day in order to meet the needs of the business or for the employee.  Any request must be considered in good faith and any agreement must meet the following minimum requirements:
- Any public holiday being transferred must be identified and otherwise be a working day for the employee;
- The day it is being transferred to must be identified or identifiable, otherwise be a working day for the employee and not another public holiday;
and
- The purpose of the transfer cannot be to avoid paying the employee time and a half for working on a public holiday or providing them with an alternative holiday.

If you would like to discuss any matters related to holiday leave entitlements, please contact our employment law specialist, Elizabeth Briggs, on 837 6889 or at elizabeth.briggs@smithpartners.co.nz