Whenever there is a block of Public Holidays such as Christmas, New Year or Easter, you can almost feel the stress levels go up in the payroll office as payroll admins and managers try to get their heads around who should be paid what.

While the simple rule is:

Employees receive a paid day off on public holidays if it’s an otherwise working day for them. An otherwise working day is a day that an employee would have been working had the day not been a public holiday.

There is a bit more to it than that and getting it wrong not only impacts the relationship between an employer and their staff, but it potentially exposes the employer to serious penalties.

Rather than writing a long post with our interpretation of the various rules related to paying employees for Public Holidays, we have put together a list of key information and links to sites that hopefully explain what your responsibilities are (Click the link below each heading):

Public Holidays

Employees have minimum rights that apply to public and annual holidays.

Pay for public holidays, sick and bereavement leave and alternative holidays

Payment for sick and bereavement leave, public holidays and alternative holidays is calculated using relevant daily pay or average daily pay.

Relevant daily pay and average daily pay

Public holiday, bereavement and sick leave and alternative holiday payments are calculated using relevant daily pay or average daily pay (if applicable). Annual holidays are calculated differently.

Alternative holidays

An employee gets an alternative holiday for working on a public holiday that is an otherwise working day.

Employees working shifts or on-call

Public holidays for employees working shifts or on call.

Otherwise working day

To work out an employee’s rights to holidays and leave, you need to know whether the day is an otherwise working day for the employee.

Finally, a summary of ‘must-knows’ when it comes to Leave entitlement and payments. 

What employers and employees should know about calculating holiday and leave entitlements and payments.

As we said, there is a lot you need to know and understand to ensure you are compliant with all the legislation associated with managing employee leave, so we hope this helps.

The most important advice we can give you is that near enough is not good enough so if you are not sure we recommend that you seek guidance from a specialist adviser in this area or you contact Employment New Zealand and ask one of their advisors.

We have provided contact details below:

Employment New Zealand

For free employment information, they are open from Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5.00pm, and Fridays 9.00am to 5.00pm, excluding public holidays. You can call them on 0800 20 90 20.

Or you can email them - Here

Please note: They can't interpret employment agreements, provide legal advice or bring personal grievances on your behalf. For legal advice, please consult a lawyer or visit your local community law centres.

Source of the information provided here Employment New Zealand