Wait, so Christmas Day follows Boxing Day this year!

Transferring public holidays is always a fun aspect of the holiday payroll, and 2016 is no exception.

This year, Christmas Day (25 December) falls on a Sunday.  This means that if an employee doesn’t usually work on Sundays, the Christmas Day public holiday will be transferred to the Tuesday (27 December).  Boxing Day will remain on Monday, 26 December.  So yes, for most people, Christmas Day will come after Boxing Day – mind blown!  For those employees who do usually work on Sunday, Christmas Day will remain on Sunday, 25 December.

The same thing will apply for New Year’s Day and the 2^nd of January public holidays.

Whether the public holiday is transferred or not, the following scenarios could occur:

• Your employee is working on a public holiday and that day would not otherwise be a working day for that employee
  Employee entitlement: your employee is entitled to be paid for each hour worked on that day, at the rate of time and a half of his or her relevant daily pay, calculated on an hourly basis.

• Your employee is working on a public holiday and that day would otherwise be a working day for that employee.

Employee entitlement: your employee is entitled to be paid for each hour worked on that day, at the rate of time and a half of his or her relevant daily pay, calculated on an hourly basis and to an alternative whole day of holiday (what used to be called ‘a day in lieu’).

• Your employee is not working on a public holiday but that day would otherwise be a working day for that employee.

Employee entitlement: your employee is entitled to be paid for the day at his or her relevant daily pay – i.e. what the employee would have received if they had worked that day.

• Your employee does not work on a public holiday and that day would not otherwise be a working day for them.

Employee entitlement: nothing.

Please note that this article and examples are based on the application of the Holidays Act 2003.  Employment agreements may contain enhanced entitlements for employees.

Merry Christmas from the Employment Team at Hesketh Henry.  May your holidays be safe, your employees engaged, and your payroll compliant.  If you have any questions, please give us a call or send us an email, and we will pick it up from our office at the beach.