Hi Fellow OZbargainers,
So I just started a new job in December. We had a office shutdown for 24th Dec 21 till 9th Jan 2022. My employer didn't pay me for Christmas day and Boxing day. Is this correct? They said if I submitted paid leave, public holidays will be paid. But if I submitted leave without pay. Public holiday is not paid as well. I am on a full time contract.
Regards.
Unfortunately they were correct. I found this on the fairwork website.
Unpaid leave and public holidays
An employee isn’t paid for any public holiday that falls during a time when the employee is on unpaid leave.
Source reference: Fair Work Act 2009 s.114 -116
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment-conditions/public-hol…
That is interesting, i never knew that. Good to know.
Why is that? Its leave without pay………… Put it another way, if you put in a request for 1 year of 'leave without pay', you wouldn't expect to be paid public holidays would you?
@JimmyF: I was thinking from the angle of when you dont have enough accrued annual leave to cover the office shut down, some employees might think of using leave without pay. Some HR systems go negative, some dont. So if people use leave without pay and doesnt know the rules (which appears that I dont), they might not get all the public holiday benefits due to a technicality.
Obviously if you put in a 1 year leave without pay which essentially is a pause on employment, you dont get anything.
I was thinking from the angle of when you dont have enough accrued annual leave to cover the office shut down,
Most businesses will let you go into negative leave for this (Although maybe not 2 or 3 weeks worth?)
@JimmyF: The staff who were stood down from Qantas on leave without pay were still payed for public holidays 🤣
you wouldn't expect to be paid public holidays would you?
around here it seems many would….
That's a very loose interpretation of those rules considering it was a forced shutdown. Unfortunately the best point to speak up would have been prior to taking leave, unless it's in your award they're not allowed to force you to take unpaid leave, you have to agree to it. I would have done a deal to take it if you were paid the stat holidays.
As always though, first thing that matters is what award you're under, that's the rules that apply and many have specific rules about shutdowns.
What award or enterprise agreement are you on? Often for xmas shutdown they need to provide meaningful work if staff don’t have sufficient leave. Just depends on award/agreement.
Just tell the boss you will see him on Thursday. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are vice the 3 public holidays.
I think OP should only work Wed, Thu, Fri from now on.
The system will automatically deduct the number of days requested by the number of public holidays. The alternate way is to apply your leave in blocks (the days outside of public holidays) so your boss has to approve multiple times.
Edit: Just saw OP's reply above, unpaid leave does not cover public holidays. So he is right.
I did that too! but I didn't know xmas eve was a day off too. My leave request was automatically altered to include xmas eve. Oh well lost a good two days pay.
Xmas eve is not a public holiday so it will eat into your leave.
https://www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au/public-holidays/p…
I mean I thought I was going to work that day. But it was part of the office shutdown. So someone override my leave request. I didn't think much of it until I didn't paid for the public holidays.
Xmas Eve (6pm - 11:59pm AEST) is a public holiday in Queensland, and possibly other states too. https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/travel/holidays/public
It depends on the type of contract you're on:
If you're a fixed term contractor that gets paid sick leave, etc like a full time employee (but with an end date), then you should get paid for the public holidays.
If you're on a daily rate (like I am on now) or you're invoicing the company for each period, then you only get paid for the actual days you work - ie, public holidays and office closures etc are not paid.
So what does your contract say?
"If you're a fixed term contractor that gets paid sick leave, etc like a full time employee (but with an end date), then you should get paid for the public holidays."
OP found the fair work clause: "An employee isn’t paid for any public holiday that falls during a time when the employee is on unpaid leave."
To your quote: OP applied for unpaid leave thus the public holidays are not paid.
"An employee isn’t paid for any public holiday that falls during a time when the employee is on unpaid leave."
That makes sense - an employee would only get paid for a public holiday if they're supposed to work that day. If they're on unpaid leave for a period and the public holiday falls within that period, then they're not supposed to work on that public holiday and therefore, they won't get paid. Annual leave, sick leave, "length of service" and other entitlements generally won't accrue during that period, including those public holidays either.
I guess the closest example I can give if there's a perm part time employee that works Mon/Wed/Fri only and a public holiday falls on a Thurs, they won't get paid because it falls on a day that they're not supposed to work.
For an office closure, full time employees who are entitled to annual leave would usually put that period as paid leave and get paid for public holidays.
If you submitted a LWOP request for the days can you cancel that then resubmit 1 for the 24/12 only then another for the 29/22-9/1?
I find that weird, if unpaid leave falls on a public holiday, you're not paid but yet if you don't request unpaid leave in that time period, you're paid.
Correct me if I got that wrong
Edit: So what happens if you apply for unpaid leave excluding the public holidays? I assume you get paid then.
Public holidays should not reduce your annual leave balance and would be paid as a public holiday (essentially a free day if you're full time).
Sounds like you submitted it as leave without pay instead of putting it as a public holiday in the timesheet. If it's a proper system it should automatically fix this, if it's not, you should rectify this with the boss/payroll