10 things you should know about Easter 2018

Mon March 12th 2018

Good Friday 30 March– public holiday

Saturday 31 March – not a public holiday

Easter Sunday 1 April – not a public holiday

Easter Monday 2 April – public holiday

1. Easter Sunday is not a public holiday so should be treated like any other Sunday, with the exception of shop employees (the Shop Trading Hours Act 1990).Essentially, an employee does not have to work Easter Sunday (if they are a shop employee) unless the employer has given at least four weeks written notice (and not more than eight weeks) to the employee of the requirement to work and the employee has not given written notice of the intention to refuse work which they are entitled to do. If your business normally operates on a Sunday and you do not require employees to work over Easter you should discuss the options with them such as annual leave, remembering you must give them at least 14 days’ notice if you don’t require them to work.If you have any questions regarding this please call to discuss further.
2. What do you have to pay employees on Easter Friday and/or Easter Monday who are not required to work? If these days would otherwise be a normal day of work if it was not Easter, they are entitled to be paid at their relevant daily pay or average daily pay (whichever is the higher) if they have the day off.
3. What do you have to pay employees if they work on Easter Friday and/or Easter Sunday? If it would otherwise have been a working day, they will be entitled to time and a half for the time they actually worked together with an additional day to be taken at a time agreed between the parties.
4. What do you have to pay employees if they work on Easter Friday and/or Easter Sunday and it is not a day they would normally work? They will be entitled to time and a half for the time actually worked, but not the additional day.
5. On Call: If an employee is on call and has to be available on Easter Friday and/or Easter Monday, they must receive an additional day for each day that they are on call, even if they aren’t called out.If they are called out they must receive payment as outlined in point 4.
6. What happens if employee is on annual Leave? If Good Friday or Easter Monday occur during an employee’s leave it must be treated as a public holiday and not taken as annual leave.
7. If employment ends close to Easter, is the employee entitled to Easter Friday and/or Easter Monday? Only if the public holidays would have otherwise been a working day for the employee and occurred during the employee’s annual holidays had they taken their remaining holiday entitlement immediately after the date on which their employment ended.This applies only to the amount of entitlement up to the last employment anniversary and not to the accrual for the current incomplete employment year.
8. Can you transfer a public holiday? Under the Holidays Act employers and employees can agree in writing to transfer a public holiday to any 24 hour period (which would otherwise have been a working day).In the absence of a written agreement a public holiday is observed midnight to midnight.
9. The Holidays Act is in places difficult to understand and apply correctly.If you have any doubts or questions about your individual circumstances, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.
10. Recharge your batteries; use the opportunity to regroup because one quarter of the year has just about gone – are you on track with what you want to achieve in 2018 or are there some tweaks you have to make? And most of all, take time to enjoy family, friends, Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns.