Public Holidays

With the festive season coming up many Salons will choose to open for business on some or all of the Public Holidays.

Some staff love working on Public Holidays because it means they earn penalty rates. Other staff members would prefer to take the Public Holiday leave in order to spend time with friends and family.

The Fair Work Act provides that you can request an employee to work on any Public Holiday if it is reasonable for you to do so. Similarly, the employee can refuse, but their refusal must also be reasonable.

How do you determine if a request or refusal is reasonable?

Unfortunately, there is no single factor that determines this. You need to take all of the following factors into consideration:

• the nature and requirements of your business
• the nature of the work performed by the employee
• the employee's personal circumstances, including family responsibilities
• whether the employee could reasonably expect that you might request work on the public holiday
• whether the employee is entitled to receive additional compensation for working on public
   holidays
• the type of the employee's employment (e.g. full-time, part-time, casual or shift work)
• the amount of notice you give when making the request and/or the amount the employee gave you    in refusing the request.

Public Holidays Christmas New Year

New South Wales

Queensland

Victoria

Western Australia

Northern Territory - South Australia
Tasmania - ACT

Please note: Public Holidays are governed by State Laws and are subject to change without notice from the time of publication. For more information please click here: