Easter Public Holidays – to roster or not to roster?

With the Easter public holidays shortly upon us, it’s important that if you are planning to roster an employee to work on a public holiday, they should be given the choice to work or not to work. 

You can request employees to work on a public holiday, but the request has to be reasonable and employee can refuse a request to work if the:

• employee has reasonable grounds, or
• request is unreasonable.

When deciding if an employee will be rostered to work on a public holiday, employers should consider:

• the nature of the workplace
• the role and type of work of the employee does
• employee’s personal circumstances (including caring responsibilities)
• employment status (full-time, part-time or casual)
• an expectation that they might be asked to work on the public holiday
• any overtime, penalty rates or other payment the employee might receive
• the amount of notice provided
• any other relevant factor.

Employers can require an employee to work a public holiday if the:

• employer has made a reasonable request for the employee to work the public holiday
• employee has unreasonably refused that request.

It’s important that your employees are paid correctly and employees (except casual employees) who normally work on the day a public holiday falls will be paid their base pay rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked if they had not been away because of the public holiday. 

The base pay rate doesn’t include bonuses, overtime, penalty rates, loadings, any incentive-based payments, monetary allowances.

If you need help in understanding your obligations, South Australian Business Chamber Members can call our Business Advice Hotline on (08) 8300 0000.