Everyone loves a public holiday, but not everyone is always lucky enough to get a day off. Plenty of businesses need to operate during public holidays and this often means they’re required to pay their staff penalty rates in order to compensate them for working on a national holiday. With ANZAC Day coming up next week we thought we’d look into whether this holiday qualifies for double pay and what workers are entitled to.
Do you get double pay on ANZAC Day?
Public holidays vary from state to state, but ANZAC Day is recognised as a national holiday across all Australian states and territories.
To determine whether you are entitled to penalty rates on a public holiday you’ll need to know whether your role is covered under an Award, Enterprise agreement or another registered agreement (you can go to Fair Work to figure this out).
Lots of things can determine what rate you’re paid on a public holiday, such as whether you are full-time or casual and what age you are.
Most industries will pay employees 250 per cent, or double time and a half, for the hours they’ve worked on ANZAC Day, but at minimum, they must be paid their base pay rate. You can calculate what the penalty rates will be under your specific award on the Fair Work website.
Full-time or part-time employees in some industries can also choose to work a public holiday and substitute the penalty rates with either a day off with no loss of pay or an extra day of annual leave, in agreement with their employer.
According to Fair Work, all employees should also be given the choice to work on a public holiday or not. Employees are entitled to refuse a request to work if the request is unreasonable or they have reasonable grounds to refuse.
For more information on the upcoming ANZAC Day holiday, check out our weather forecast and a rundown of what is open on the day.
Lead Image Credit: iStock
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