2021 sees Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day falling on a weekend. This means that these Public Holidays get Mondayised - observed on the Monday or first working day of the following week.
Waitangi Day is on Saturday 6 February and ANZAC Day is on Sunday 25 April.
And this weekend is Wellington Anniversary weekend, making Monday 25 January a Public Holiday for Wellingtonians.
If your place of work is normally open seven days a week, you need to be aware of how to treat these Public Holidays for your staff. For those staff who normally work on a Saturday or Sunday, then the Public Holiday is treated as the day it actually falls. For the rest of your staff, the Public Holiday is moved to the Monday i.e. 8 February for Waitangi Day and 26 April for ANZAC Day.
If your staff work both the weekend and the Monday, they only get one of these days treated as the Public Holiday. In this case it would be the Saturday (for Waitangi Day) and Sunday (for ANZAC Day). The Monday would be a normal day of work for those employees.
Each employee is entitled to 11 Public Holidays per year, but only if they would normally work on the day the Public Holiday falls.
if a Public Holiday is Mondayised, they can’t claim two public holidays (i.e. one for the actual date and one for the Mondayised date)
if the employee is usually based in Auckland, but is temporarily based in Wellington, the Anniversary Day to be observed is a matter to be agreed by the employer and the employee, but the employee can only claim one Anniversary Day per year. Both parties can agree to transfer the observance of the public holiday if they wish. If they cannot reach an agreement, then the employee is entitled to observe the anniversary of the province that they usually work in (Auckland, in this example). If they were to work on the day, they’d be paid time and a half, plus an alternative day.
You also need to ensure you comply with your employment agreement when it comes to Public Holidays. An employee can only be made to work on a Public Holiday if:
it falls on a day that they would have otherwise worked on, and
their employment agreement says they have to work on the Public Holiday.
If an employee is required to be available to work on a Public Holiday that doesn’t fall within their agreed and guaranteed hours, this must be covered by an availability clause in their employment agreement. You will have to pay reasonable compensation for this unless there is agreement that reasonable compensation is provided through their salary. You must also have genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds for including an availability provision and for requiring the employee to be available on the Public Holiday.
Photo: Natalya Zaritzkaya on Unsplash.com