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The general rule for public holidays is that they are taken on the day they fall. There are four public holidays that are treated differently.

These are Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and 2^nd of January.

When any of these four public holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday the first step is to look at your employees’ work patterns. You need to determine if the public holiday falls on an employee’s ‘Otherwise Working Day’. You can use the Department of Labour’s Holidays Online Toolto help you with that. You can then use the chart below to help you determine which day the public holiday will be taken.

Our Holidays Online Tool also helps you to work out what to pay and what leave an employee is entitled to on public holidays. Make sure you have payroll information or a payslip handy when you use the tool.

Examples of how the 2010/11 holiday entitlements work for some common working arrangements are outlined below;

• Employees who normally work Monday to Friday
• Employees who normally work Wednesday to Sunday and are required to work
• Employees who normally work Tuesday to Saturday
• Employees who normally work Friday to Tuesday

*If the day that the public holiday is taken on is not an otherwise working day for that employee then the employee observes that public holiday as an unpaid public holiday.

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.

View more information on public holidays at the following links;