Q: Many of our employees are full-time salaried employees and they work 40 hours a week being eight hours on Monday to Friday (inclusive).
The exception to this is two newish employees who work full-time but they cover one weekend day each in their five-day working week.
The employee who works Tuesday to Saturday as their normal contracted days of work is disadvantaged because they miss out on many Public Holidays in NZ that fall on or are observed on a Monday. We are just wondering if you had many other businesses in a similar situation, and to check what they do please.
Are we able to perhaps put a clause in our employment agreements that our full-time staff still receive these Monday Public Holidays (even if they do not normally work this day).
I realise this treatment is not per the Holidays Act but paying them this Public Holiday would be above the minimum legal standard required.
A: There is no requirement that the employee is provided with all public holidays. It is based on their agreed-upon week. In many cases, when the working week starts and finishes on different days of the week, it fits and benefits the employee.
As an employer, if you want to provide better than the act, you can always do this, but it is an agreed term and has nothing to do with the Holidays Act. If you are going to provide additional days code it differently, keep it away from the act and based it on the employees ordinary rate to simplified payroll processing and for compliance.