Easter Break—How to Manage Your Public Holidays
Posted
The Easter long weekend is a great time to reset and charge the batteries after a busy start to the year. It is also a good time to ensure that your business is managing the public holidays correctly and that employees are paid their due entitlements.
Employees have a right to be absent from work on a public holiday and be paid their base hourly rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked if they had not been away, because of the public holiday. This only applies to those employees, excluding casuals, who would have normally worked on the day the public holiday falls.
The gazetted public holidays for the ACT for this Easter break are:
- Friday 7 April (Good Friday)
- Saturday 8 April (Easter Saturday)
- Sunday 9 April (Easter Sunday)
- Monday 10 April (Easter Monday)
While there should not be any significant differences, if your business is covered by an enterprise agreement, please check the relevant clauses to check the application of any additional entitlements and rules.
Where your employee is required to work over the Easter break, please double check the applicable Award or your enterprise agreement as the entitlements for your employee required to work during the Easter break may be deemed to be hours worked on a public holiday. These instruments can also provide guidance on what needs to be considered when requesting an employee to work on a public holiday.
