Casual employees and alternative holiday

Q: We have a client who have been granting alternative holiday to their casual employees for working on a public holiday.

They determined the entitlement of alternative holiday by looking at the last four weeks whether the casual employee worked on the day which the public holiday fall on.

However, recently they have allowed the casual employees to take alternative holidays. Is that possible? Casual employees do not have a set work pattern.

I thought in the case of casual employees, the alternative will either get paid out at termination or cashed out if not taken within 12 months.

A: If an alternative holiday is taken it must be on a day that is an otherwise working day for the employee.

Requirements of alternative holiday
(1)
An alternative holiday provided under section 56 must—
(a)
be taken by the employee on a day that is agreed between the employer and employee; and
(b)
be a day that would otherwise be a working day for the employee; and

As you have stated below a casual does not have an otherwise working day.

There is nothing in the act that states anything on a casual (except Section 28 Pay as you go) getting and using an alternative day specifically.

You could look at this as providing better than the act as I do not this as disadvantage the employee.