2DecRequesting employees to work on public holidays
Posted on 2/12/2013 by Nine2Three
Christmas is coming and as always we are here to help you with your business and staffing management over the coming festive season.
If you need any temp staff, to mind an office, handle incoming calls or work on a project over the holiday period, get your order into us as soon as possible. We often find that our holiday temp workers end up having ongoing work with our clients because they work out so well.
But if you have your own staff all sorted, just keep in mind about the public holidays.
If you want to request your workers to work on the public holidays, there is a certain way you should go about this.
You should also look at making sure that you pay your employees correctly if they work or have a Rostered Day off (depending on the award), on a public holiday.
All employees in Australia are entitled to a day off on a public holiday, regardless of the industrial instrument they are employed under or what you have written into their Contract of Employment. This is detailed under the National Employment Standards.
If your request is reasonable, there is no reason why your employee should not comply. If the employee feels that your request is unreasonable, they may refuse. You as the employer, can not exert undue influence on your workers to make them work a public holiday, additionally you can not take any adverse action against an employee because they refuse to work on a public holiday.
The National Employment Standards set out reasonable grounds for requesting or refusing to work on a public holiday.
These are:
• the nature of the employer’s workplace (including its operational requirements) and the nature of the work performed by the employee;
• the employee’s personal circumstances, including family responsibilities;
• whether the employee could reasonably expect that the employer might request work on the public holiday;
• whether the employee is entitled to receive overtime payments, penalty rates, additional remuneration or other compensation that reflects an expectation of work on the public holiday;
• the type of employment (e.g. full-time, part-time, casual or shiftwork);
• the amount of notice in advance of the public holiday given by the employer when making the request;
• the amount of notice in advance of the public holiday given by the employee in refusing the request;
• any other relevant matter.
An employee is not entitled to payment if they do not normally work on the day of the week, that the public holiday falls on. However if they do normally work this day, they are entitled to their base rate of pay as long as they are not working on the actual holiday.
For information about what rates to pay your staff when working the public holiday , contact Nicole, Lee or Kathryn as it has to be ascertained what industrial instrument you employ under and can be different for each worker.
The Public holidays that may impact you over the next two months are:
• 25 December (Christmas Day)
• 26 December (Boxing Day)
• 1 January (New Year’s Day)
• 26 January (Australia Day)
We hope you have found this helpful, because we love to share our expertise with our clients and friends. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact myself, Nicole or Lee on 1300923000 or cv@nine2three.com.au. Think of Nine2Three as your one stop employment shop – for all your employment needs from people to procedures to protection!
Have a great Chrissy!
Kathryn MacMillan
Important Note: These articles have been prepared for general circulation and are circulated for general informational purposes only; these articles should not be regarded as business or investment advice. The articles represent the views of the writers and are subject to change without notice. Additionally, while every care has been taken in the preparation of the articles no representation or warranty as to accuracy or completeness of any statement is given. An individual or organisation should, before any business or investment decision is made, consider the appropriateness of the information in this document, and seek professional advice, having regard to objectives, situation and needs. This document is solely for the use of the party to whom it is provided.
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