"An employee is usually entitled to be paid for a public holiday, if they would have worked had the day not been a public holiday."

Entitlement Overview

• Public holidays are provided for by the very clearly written Part 3 of the Holidays Act 2003.

• Note there is no entitlement period. An employee is entitled to payment for public holidays the day they commence employment.

Public holiday substituted in employment contract

• Section 44(2) of the Holidays Act 2003 provides for an employment contract to substitute any public holiday with another day.

• If this is the case, entitlement to payment for the public holiday can only be decided by referring to the relevant employment contract.

Employee works irregular hours

• Many people are confused about leave payments to employees who work irregular hours.

• Section 12 of the Holidays Act 2003 provides that in this situation, the employer and employee should agree on regular hours for the purpose of leave entitlements.

• If they cannot agree, the Act provides for a Labour Inspector to decide instead.

Termination - public holiday falls within holiday days owing

• Section 40 of the Holidays Act 2003 provides that when an employee terminates, they are deemed to still be employed for the unused holiday days owing.

• This means that if a public holiday falls on one of these unused holiday days, the employee is entitled to be paid for the public holiday.

• Note that the percentage of gross paid for the part year worked is irrelevant.

• The employee is only deemed to be still employed during the holiday days allowed for each full year of service, as provided for in Section 16 of the Holidays Act 2003.