Public holidays – don’t forget your fairwork obligations!
Here is a summary:
You need to pay all full time and part time staff for the normal hours they would have worked on Australia Day if you close your workplace.
Employees (except casual employees) who normally work on the day a public holiday falls will be paid their base pay rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked if they had not been away because of the public holiday.
The base pay rate doesn’t include:
– any incentive-based payments
– bonuses
– loadings
– monetary allowances
– overtime or
– penalty rates.
An employee’s roster can’t be changed to deliberately avoid this payment.
Fine print here: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment-conditions/public-holidays/not-working-on-public-holidays
If you open your workplace, all employees have the right to not work. Employers can request employees to work on a public holiday, but the request has to be reasonable. An employee can refuse a request to work if the employee has reasonable grounds to refuse or the request is unreasonable.
Employees get paid at least their base pay rate for all hours worked on public holidays.
Awards, enterprise agreements and other registered agreements can provide entitlements for working public holidays, including:
– extra pay (for example public holiday rates)
– an extra day off or extra annual leave
– minimum shift lengths on public holidays
– agreeing to substitute a public holiday for another day.
Links and more info here: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages/penalty-rates-allowances-and-other-payments/penalty-rates/public-holiday-penalty-rates
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