public holidays – general entitlements

All employees are entitled to a paid day off on a public holiday if it would otherwise be a working day for them (see below “Examples: “otherwise a working day”).

These public holidays are separate from and additional to annual holidays.

Our Holidays Online Tool makes it easy to work out what pay and leave an employee is entitled to on public holidays. You can also use it to work out sick and bereavement leave entitlements. Make sure you have payroll information or a payslip handy when you use the tool.

Which days are Public Holidays

The Holidays Act 2003 made some adjustments to previous entitlements to public holidays. There are now only two groups of holidays, with slightly differing entitlements applying to each:

• Christmas and New Year: Christmas Day (25 December), Boxing Day (26 December), New Year's Day and the day after (1 and 2 January)
• All other holidays: Waitangi Day (6 February), Good Friday and Easter Monday (dates variable), ANZAC Day (25 April), Queen's Birthday (first Monday in June), Labour Day (fourth Monday in October) and Provincial Anniversary Day (date determined locally).

The public holidays over the Christmas and New Year period continue to have special arrangements, but the Holidays Act 2003 changes the previous arrangement that deemed these holidays to be celebrated on Monday and Tuesday if they fell at a weekend. From Christmas 2004:

• If the holiday falls on a weekend, and your 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 they usually work those days.
• If the holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday and the employee normally works on that day, then the holiday remains at the traditional day and the employee is entitled to that day off on pay.

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

All other public holidays are celebrated on the day on which they fall. In years where Waitangi Day (6 February) or Anzac Day (25 April) fall at the weekend, employees who do not normally work on the weekend have no entitlement to payment for the day.

In light of a recent Supreme Court decision, an employer and employee cannot agree to transfer a public holiday from the day listed in the Act to another day.

However, as an exception to the above, the Holidays Act, as amended by the Holidays (Transfer of Public Holidays) Amendment Act 2008 allows employees working shifts that start and end on different days to transfer the public holiday, by agreement with their employer, so that the public holiday covers one whole shift. It is important to note that the transfer can only take place if certain requirements are met, such as that the employee is due to work a shift in the period to which the public holiday is transferred.

For further information see the following fact sheet – Transferring public holidays – entitlements for employees working shifts that cross midnight.

Taking a public holiday

The concept of what would otherwise be a working day is key to determining an employee's entitlement regarding public holidays.
In most cases whether a day would otherwise be a working day is clear because the working week or roster is constant and both the employer and employee can understand and agree about whether the employee would otherwise work on the day.
Where the employer and the employee cannot agree whether a day would otherwise be a working day they should consider the following issues:

• what the employment agreement says
• the employee's usual work patterns
• the employer's rosters or other similar systems
• the reasonable expectations of the employer and employee as to whether the employee would work on the day concerned.
• whether the employee works for the employer only when work is available
• any other relevant factors

You can use our Holidays Online Tool (http://www.ers.govt.nz/holidays-online-tool/default.aspx) to help work out whether a day “would otherwise be a working day” for an employee.

Examples: “otherwise a working day”

• If a part-time employee normally works four hours each day on Tuesday and Wednesday and normally works eight hours on Friday, then the employee would be given Good Friday off with eight hours' pay, but would not be entitled to pay for Easter Monday.
• An employee's roster requires three 10-hour days on Monday to Wednesday one week (week one) and the same hours on Thursday to Saturday the next week (week two).
  If week one coincides with the week in which Good Friday falls then this worker will not get paid for Good Friday or Easter Monday (that will fall in week two) because they would not have been scheduled to work on that Friday or Monday.
  If, however, week two coincides with Good Friday then the worker will be entitled to a holiday on pay for both Good Friday and Easter Monday.

If the employer and employee are unable to reach agreement, a Labour Inspector has the power to determine the matter taking into consideration the same issues.

When can an employee be required to work on a public holiday

An employer may require an employee to work on a public holiday when:

• the public holiday falls on a day the employee would otherwise have worked, and
• the employee's employment agreement specifies that the employee may be required to work on the holiday.

Transitional arrangements for current “days in lieu”

As of 1 April 2004, any “days in lieu” owed to the employee for working on earlier public holidays became “alternative holiday” entitlements under the new Holidays Act. All of the rules about alternative holidays will apply to these ‘days in lieu' as if they were in place when the entitlement arose.

Further information

For further information on public holidays see the following fact sheets:

• “Public holidays – payment”
• “Public holidays - calculating payment for public holidays - “relevant daily pay””
• “Public holidays - alternative holidays (days in lieu) for employees who work on public holidays”
• “Public holidays - time and a half payment for working on public holidays”