Christmas Holidays & Leave - Tips for Employers
From annual leave to public holidays (like Christmas) your worker(s) must get at least the legal minimum. Of course, there are different rules for different types of leave so understanding your obligations as an employer makes it easier to work out leave entitlements and approve leave – leading to happier, more productive employees.
Here is a link to a great website to get all the tips & a full understanding of your legal requirements.
At a glance all employees are covered by the Holidays Act (2003). Basically, that Act requires you to keep accurate records of all employee’s hours, what they have been paid for these hours, entitled leave and taken leave. There are also other leave entitlements, such as sick, bereavement & domestic violence leave.
So how does Christmas & New Year affect me and my staff?
Public Holidays
When a public holiday falls on a day your employee would usually work, they’re entitled to a paid day off, no matter how long they’ve been working for you. If they agree to work anyway, you must:
- pay them at least time & a half
- give them another paid day off later (a day in lieu)
If the public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday (upcoming Christmas Day & Boxing Day 25/26 Dec are Saturday/Sunday) then employees who don’t normally work will have the following Monday/Tuesday as their paid public holiday, which is known as Mondayisation. However, if your employees work weekends as well as Mondays, they don’t get all 3 days paid as public holidays – just the two.
What is also important is to understand what your employees are entitled to, especially those who work irregular or part-time hours, and how to calculate their leave payments and the options you have on how you calculate these. Given there are a few variations we suggest you search the above website for direction.
The last thing you want is a costly dispute with an employee.
Business NZ Website
As a business, and an employer, we suggest you bookmark the website www.business.govt.nz. It not only gives you guidelines on Hiring and Managing people it also has some great information, along with tools & resources, on business, how to grow, doing business online and so on.
Their monthly newsletter also keeps you up to date with the latest tips, advice and news.