Forced Unpaid Leave for Christmas Closure Period - Payment for Public Holidays Days?

Koipanda on 11/01/2025 - 01:19
Last edited 11/01/2025 - 07:50 by 1 other user

The Fair Work website states that:

Where an employee has agreed to take unpaid leave during a shutdown, they may be entitled to payment for the public holidays that fall during that time. This will depend on:

-if the employee has ordinary hours of work on those public holidays
-any award or agreement provisions that apply the circumstances of the unpaid leave
-any agreement between employer and employee to be paid for public holidays.

Would this not mean that a full-time employee under an employment agreement (not award/EA) would be entitled to be paid on days that are public holidays during a Christmas closure period even though they are on unpaid leave? For clarity, they took the unpaid leave because they did not have any annual leave accrued, and the office was shut down.

If yes, would that mean they would be paid their normal base rate for Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year?

• 

  MS Paint on 11/01/2025 - 01:56

  -2

  I'm guessing no.

  if the employee has ordinary hours of work on those public holidays

  Does this worker normally work on public holidays? Doesn't sound like it. That would normally be 24/7 shift workers or retail workers etc not your average 9-5 office desk jockey.

  Any award or agreement provisions that apply the circumstances of the unpaid leave

  Is there an agreement in their award that applies? I'm guessing no as you mentioned above.

  any agreement between employer and employee to be paid for public holidays."

  Do they have this entitlement specifically mention in their agreement with the employer? I'm guessing no as they were shut down over Christmas.

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  bobbified on 11/01/2025 - 03:57

  +16

  Unpaid leave can only be taken on working days. If you're full time, then the public holidays should be paid regardless of whether there's office closure or not.

  You cannot take unpaid leave for public holidays.

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  AngoraFish on 11/01/2025 - 06:01

  +3

  Yes, if a public holiday falls on a day that is a normal working day for you you must be paid for those days, even if you're otherwise taking unpaid leave because you haven't accumulated enough annual leave yet to cover the shutdown period.

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  original15 on 11/01/2025 - 08:07

  +3

  Sounds like a system issue. If ever entering unpaid leave over a period with public holidays I would make different entries to avoid coverage over public holidays
  This can happen because let’s say someone is on a years worth of unpaid leave for whatever reason, they won’t then be paid for the public holidays they’ve missed

  You/your friend should be able to seek payment for the PH, first port of call should be HR, if no HR, speak to manager, then they may just cancel the historical leave and re-enter it in a couple of chunks. Ideally the system would have different leave codes to cater to short term unpaid leave and long term

  I’m not an HR systems guy (but do work in HR) but that’s my take^

  • 

    star-ggg on 11/01/2025 - 10:04

    +1

    In my company, a year of unpaid leave would be defined as a career break which would then result in unpaid public holidays.

    • 

      original15 on 11/01/2025 - 10:30

      Yes, but how the system enters this is what’s causing the issue, of course a year of unpaid leave should result in no payment for public holidays
      But the leave system would then need a rule to determine how long the unpaid leave needs to be to omit public holiday pay or multiple unpaid leave types

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  JIMB0 on 11/01/2025 - 12:21

  Sounds like something a scummy HR/IR person would try on. I'd be getting the union involved.