The festive season is upon us and our attention has turned to the Christmas close down period.
And as day follows night some employers haven’t learned that they cannot coerce you into taking annual leave to cover their close down periods.
Christmas close down period
It is very clear from our public sector Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and most of our private sector agreements that there is no capacity for your employer to force you to take annual leave or long service leave for this purpose.
It is not acceptable for your employer to make arrangements about close down periods under the assumption that staff will be required to use annual leave or long service leave to cover it.
Remember: there is no requirement for anyone to agree to take annual leave or long service leave to cover regular working days over the Christmas and New Year period.
Contact the Union for assistance on 9623 9623 if you need further advice.
Payment for Public Holidays over Christmas
It is important to know their rights about payment for working and not working on Public Holidays, particularly for part timers.
The three Public Holidays during the festive season are:
- Christmas Day – Friday 25th December 2015
- Boxing Day – Saturday 26th December 2015 & Monday 28th December 2015 is an additional day
- New Year’s Day – Friday 1st January 2016
Public Sector*
Where a full time employee is rostered for duty on a public holiday are entitled to be paid for the time worked with a minimum of four hours wages at the rate of time and a half in addition to their normal weekly wage i.e. in addition to payment for the day. (Time off in lieu at the penalty rate with a minimum of six hours time off may be taken by agreement, as well as payment for the day). If an employee is entitled to a full working day off, this may be added to annual leave by mutual consent.
Where a full time shift employee is rostered off on a public holiday (i.e. those who are normally rostered over a seven day cycle where a public holiday falls on a Rostered Day Off – i.e. a day when they are not rostered for duty) are entitled to the normal weekly wage plus one and a half days pay (or one and a half days’ time in lieu) for the public holiday.
For a full time employee, where a public holiday falls on a day on which they normally work but they are not required to work, they are entitled to one day’s pay i.e. are paid for the public holiday.
For a part time employee, where a public holiday falls on a day on which they normally work but they are not required to work they are entitled to one day’s pay at the number of hours that they normally are rostered on that day.
For a part-time employee, where a public holiday falls on a day when they are never rostered to work, they are entitled to a pro rata payment for the day, where a day means 8 hours, based on the average weekly hours worked over the last 6 months divided by 38
* NB: It is important to note that the entitlements for the Private Sector may vary slightly. In this case it is best to read the “Public Holidays” clause within the Enterprise Agreement which applies to your employer
