Useful Business Documents

Holidays and Leave over the Summer Period   

The general rule for public holidays is that they are taken on the day they fall. There are four public holidays that are treated differently.

These are:

• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day
• New Year's Day
• 2nd of January

When any of these four public holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday it is important to first look at your employees' work patterns. The Department of Labour have a ‘Holidays Online' tool to help you determine if Saturday or Sunday fall on an ‘Otherwise Working Day'. You can then follow this chart to help you determine which day the public holiday will be taken.

*If the day that the public holiday is taken on is not an otherwise working day for that employee then the employee observes that public holiday as an unpaid public holiday.
 
Visit the Department of Labour website  to use the Holidays Online tool and to find out more about:

• Holidays and leave
• General Entitlements 
• Payment 
• Time and a Half for Time Worked 
• Calculating Payment for Public Holidays – ‘Relevant Daily Pay' 
• Alternative Holidays (Days in Lieu)  
• Working on a Public Holiday
• Shop opening hours 
• Entitlements for Employees Working Shifts or On Call 
• Entitlements for employees working shifts that cross midnight 
• Proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Holidays Act 2003

Annual Holidays

Under the Holidays Act 2003, your employees are entitled to four weeks' annual holidays after the first year of employment.

The key for all employers is:

• working out and agreeing what the entitlement to four weeks paid annual holidays means; and
• ensuring all employees' are paid correctly when they take annual holidays or their employment ends. Payment for annual holidays is at the greater of the ordinary weekly pay at the time the holiday is taken or the employee's average weekly earnings over the 12-month period before the holiday.
   

Close Downs

Special rules apply when there is a customary annual business closedown. This closedown can occur either across the entire workplace, or for part of an enterprise. As an employer you may implement such a closure once a year and require your employees to take annual leave during the period of the closedown. You are required to provide employees with at least 14 days notice. 

For employees with less than 12 months' service, the level of holiday pay for the closedown period can be established by:

• the employer paying the employee 8% of gross earnings to date (the employee's anniversary date will then be treated as starting on the date on which the closedown began); or 
• the employer and employee agreeing to the employee taking paid annual holidays in advance even though the leave has not yet accrued.

Additional information on Holidays and Leave can be found here.