Christmas public holidays and your roster

Christmas is coming, and it’s a good idea to be thinking about your roster and public holidays.

Most employees are entitled to four public holidays at Christmas. Depending on their usual days of work, 25, 26, 28 December; and 1, 2 and 4 January are potentially public holidays.

The 26 December and 2 January holidays are Mondayised which means that your employees whose normal working day is a Saturday or Monday will be entitled to the public holiday, however, they are only entitled to one public holiday entitlement, not two for the same holiday.

For example: an employee whose normal working days are Saturday and Monday, works Boxing Day, Saturday 26th December and receives time and a half for the hours worked plus a day in lieu. They then work the Monday (Boxing Day Mondayised) but are paid their normal rate for the hours worked. They do not receive public holiday entitlements for the Monday 28th December because they have already received this for the Saturday.

Read more about paying your staff over the upcoming public holidays.

If you have any questions, our Advice Service is here to help. Email us at [email protected], or give us a call on 0800 472 472 (1800 128 086 from Australia).