Christmas & New Year Public Holiday Entitlements
Christmas & New Year Public Holiday Entitlements
Christmas is sneaking up fast, it’s a good idea to start thinking about your staff roster and public holiday pay over the Christmas and New Year.
There are four public holidays over Christmas and New Year. The four public holidays are:
- Christmas Day (25 December)
- Boxing Day (26 December)
- New Years’ Day (1 January)
- Day after New Years’ day (2 January).
The 25 December and 1 January public holidays for 2022/23 are ‘Tuesdayised’ which means due to both public holidays falling on a Sunday, they are transferred to the nearest weekday (Tuesday) so that employees who don’t work on a Sunday get a chance to observe it. However, all employees can only observe each holiday once, so they will receive either of:
- Christmas Day – Sunday 25 December or Tuesday 27 December 2022
- Boxing Day – Monday 26 December 2022
- New Years Day – Sunday 1 January or Tuesday 3 January 2023
- Day after New Years Day – Monday 2 January 2023
If the public holiday falls on an ‘otherwise normal working day’ for your employee, you are required either to:
- give them a paid day off; or
- to pay time and a half and give them an alternative day off.
If the public holiday is not a normal scheduled working day for an employee but they work, you
need to pay them time and a half, but you are not required to provide a day in lieu. If the public holiday is Mondayised or Tuesdayised and
these observed days are otherwise normal working days for the employee, they receive their public holiday entitlement on their normal
workday. Even if they work on the actual public holiday (Saturday or Sunday) in the case when this is not an otherwise working day, they
receive normal pay for the Saturday or Sunday.
For more details on how to pay employees over the Christmas break, click here or get in touch with our payroll team for more information.