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.
