Know your Rights: WORK and paid leave over Easter

Confused about your pay and rights over Easter? There are two public holidays over

Easter. Most hospitality workers are required to work public holidays according to their

employment agreements if those days of the week are normally a working day for them.

Good Friday and Easter Monday

These are a Public Holidays.

If it is a normal working day for you then you will need to work it if required. You will be

paid time and half (your normal rate plus 50%) for all the hours worked AND you should get

an alternative holiday (lieu day) as well.

If you are not required to work you will be paid your normal pay for the day (or an average

daily pay if your hours of work vary week to week). You do not have to take annual leave.

Your employer does not have to offer you work – they can simply pay you for the public

holiday.

If this is not a normal working day for you then you do not have to work if you do not want

to, but you will not be paid any leave. If you are offered and accept work then you will be

paid time and half but you will not receive an alternate holiday.

Easter Saturday

This is not a public holiday. It is treated the same as any other Saturday. There is no higher

pay or paid leave and you will need approved leave not to work if Saturday is a normal

working day.

Easter Sunday:

This is not a public holiday. There is no higher pay or extra paid leave for working this day.

However – you do not have to work on this day if you do not want to – even if Sunday is a

normal working day for you. If your employer wants you to work on Easter Sunday they

should have informed you in writing a month before and given you 14 days to tell them

whether you wanted to work the day or not. If you did not receive notice then you can

simply inform your employer you are not working on Easter Sunday. Unless you request to

use paid leave (annual or alternate holiday), it will be unpaid leave.

What is a “normal working day”?

If you work the same days each week then it will be easy to figure out if any day of the week

is a “normal working day” for you. If your pattern has temporarily changed recently your

normal weekly pattern of work should be used.

If your weekly pattern changes regularly check your employment agreement. Many

agreements state exactly how a “normal” or “otherwise” working day should be identified.

If there is nothing in your employment agreement then the rule of thumb is that if you work

a majority of those days of the week previously then it is is a normal working day for you. So

if you worked 3 out of the last 4 Fridays, OR 5 out of the last 8 OR 7 out of the last 13 then it

should be a normal working day for you (unless there has been a recent permanent change

in your roster pattern where you will not normally be working Fridays).

How many hours do I have to work to get a paid holiday?

If you work any time at all on a public holiday and it is a normal working day for you then

you should get a whole alternate holiday. For example, if you only work 3 hours instead of a

normal 6 hours – you still get a whole extra day off. This includes working past midnight on

the day before. So if you worked on Easter Thursday but but didn’t finish until 12.30am you

need to be paid time and a half for the extra 30 minutes AND you get a whole extra day off,

whether or not you work again on Good Friday (as long as you normally work Fridays).