Under the National Employment Standards, a public holiday includes any day that is declared by the relevant State or Territory governments to be such and these will occur as a matter of course.
Generally, a full-time or part-time employee who would have worked their ordinary hours on a 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.
That is the position under the Road Transport and Distribution Award 2020. Casual employees don’t get paid for public holidays not worked. The Road Transport (Long Distance Operations) Award 2020 provisions are different.
Under the Long-Distance Award, a full-time or part-time employee who is absent from work because it is a public holiday is to be paid 20% of the minimum weekly rate specified at cl.16.1(a).
A full-time or part-time employee who is performing work on a public holiday is to be paid as follows:
- for Good Friday or the Christmas Day holiday – 30% of the minimum weekly rate specified at cl.16.1(a), plus the appropriate payment for any work performed on the public holiday in accordance with the agreed method of payment (i.e. the cents per kilometre (CPK) or hourly driving).
- for all other public holidays – 20% of the minimum weekly rate specified at cl.16.1(a), plus the appropriate payment for any work performed on the public holiday in accordance with the agreed method of payment (i.e. the cents per kilometre (CPK) or hourly driving).
A casual employee who is performing work on a public holiday is to be paid as follows:
- for Good Friday or the Christmas Day holiday – 30% of the minimum weekly rate specified at cl.16.1(a), plus the appropriate payment for any work performed on the public holiday in accordance with the agreed method of payment (i.e. the cents per kilometre (CPK) or hourly driving).
- for all other public holidays – 20% of the minimum weekly rate specified at cl.16.1(a), plus the appropriate payment for any work performed on the public holiday in accordance with the agreed method of payment (i.e. the cents per kilometre (CPK) or hourly driving).
A casual employee will only be entitled to the payment specified above where the majority of the work undertaken on a particular journey is undertaken on a public holiday.
A casual employee working on a public holiday must be paid as follows:
- if paid by the cents per kilometre (CPK) method – minimum payment as for 500 km
- if paid by the hourly driving method – minimum payment of 8 hours work, whether they worked for 8 hours or a shorter period.
For more details or for assistance with negotiations between employer and an employee where a substitution of the public holiday is sought, get in touch with the Advice Line.
What to do when an RDO falls on a public holiday?
The entitlement to a public holiday is in addition to the entitlement to an RDO, the two are mutually exclusive. An RDO cannot fall on a public holiday. As such, it is usually taken at some mutually agreed time, or added to the bank of accrued RDOs where permitted. This is because an employee has already “earned” the time off for the RDO.
