Christmas and New Year statutory holidays are again likely to
cause confusion for employers, who are being urged to seek
professional advice to avoid making pay errors to their
workers.
Both the Otago-Southland Employers Association and the Otago
Chamber of Commerce have been fielding queries from members,
and both organisations have sent out fact sheets to members
explaining their obligations.
Association managing solicitor Diana Hudson said confusion
would arise depending on how employees were rostered.
This year, Christmas and New Year holidays again fall partly
on the weekend.
This means employers are faced with implementing the transfer
provisions of the Holidays Act 2003.
"This generally gives rise to a degree of confusion, and we
field a large number of inquiries in this area," Ms Hudson
said.
Boxing Day and January 2 both fall on Saturdays.
This means the two public holidays over Christmas and New
Year fall on the Friday, and will not be affected by the
transfer provisions.
Depending on whether those Saturdays were an employee's
"normal day of work" would affect how they were paid, Ms
Hudson said.
If they were required to work, they would receive time and
a-half and a day in lieu.
The same applied to people rostered on for Monday.
If it was their normal work day, they would receive time and
a-half and a day in lieu.
"The starting point is that you are entitled to get 11 public
holidays a year. If you are going get it on the day, then you
are entitled to take it on different day."
Some of the confusion was around people changing shifts, or
volunteering to work on either the Saturday or the Monday
when they would not normally be working.
Those people would be entitled to public holiday rates
according to their employment agreement, but would not be
entitled to an alternative day.
If the day did transfer to Monday, December 26 became an
ordinary day in terms of employment and Monday would be
treated as the public holiday.
Most employers tried to minimise the cost and confusion about
statutory holidays, Ms Hudson said; and some people would
close their businesses.
Otago chamber chief executive John Christie said the
calculation of holiday pay was becoming very complicated for
his members.
"We have had phone calls from people wanting to double-check
the calculation," he said.
Larger firms would use payroll companies to calculate the
pay, but it was more difficult for people using temporary or
casual employees.
It was from these the chamber received most of its inquiries,
he said.
"If in doubt, find out," was Mr Christie's advice.
Examples from Otago-Southland Employers
Association
• Helen works full-time, Monday to Friday. This year, because
Boxing Day falls on a Saturday and Helen does not work on a
Saturday, her public holiday will transfer to Monday,
December 28.
• Dan works, Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week. Because
Saturday is a working for day for Dan, the public holiday
will not transfer. He will observe his public holiday on
Saturday, December 26.
• Jemima works on a three-week revolving roster. Two out of
every three weeks Jemima works Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Monday and Tuesday.
If the revolving roster states that Jemima will work on
Saturday, then Saturday is otherwise a working day and the
public holiday will not transfer. It will be observed on that
day.
If Jemima is not rostered to work on Saturday, the public
holiday will transfer to Monday.
If Jemima is not rostered to work on Monday, she will not be
entitled to a public holiday.
If she is rostered to work on the Monday, Saturday, December
26, becomes a usual day and her public holiday will be
observed on Monday.
• Patrick is a part-time employee but works irregular days
and hours due to the nature of his work.
To work out when he observes his public holidays, it might
pay to look back over the last three or four months and
calculate on an average how often he works on a Saturday.
If on average he works more Saturdays than not, it might pay
to consider this a working day. Patrick will observe the
public holiday on this day.
If on average he works fewer Saturdays, then the public
holiday will transfer to Monday.
Employers will then need to average out the Mondays over the
previous months to assess whether Patrick is entitled to a
public holiday or not.
