The Prime Minister has announced that Australia will observe a national day of mourning on 22 September 2022, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.  The Prime Minister has declared that this day will be a public holiday.

Despite the short notice, employers must comply with award requirements and the National Employment Standards as set out below.

Entitlements for working on a public holiday

If your business operates on a public holiday, all employees in the dairy industry who are covered by the Pastoral Award 2020 must be paid penalty rates at the rate of double time if they work on that day.

Non award employees (managers) are not entitled to penalty rates for work on public holidays.

Read more about public holiday pay rates  (inc. how to calculate the casual rate)

Entitlements for not working on a public holiday

The National Employment Standards provide for employees who do not attend work on public holidays (including award free managers) to receive the base rate of pay they would have received for ordinary hours of work as follows:

• Full-time employees are entitled to a paid day off for public holidays.
• Part-time employees are entitled to be paid for the hours they would normally work on the public holiday.  If they do not normally work on the day of the public holiday they are not entitled to pay.
• Casual employees are not entitled to pay for not working on public holidays unless they were rostered for work on that day

Can I require my employees to work on a public holiday?

You can request an employee to work on a public holiday, as long as the request is ‘reasonable’. An employee can refuse your request if the request is not reasonable or if the refusal is reasonable. To decide whether a request or refusal is ‘reasonable’, you need to consider a number of things including:

• the nature of the business and its operational requirements
• the employee’s personal circumstances, including family responsibilities
• the employee’s expectations about a requirement to work on the public holiday
• whether the employee is entitled to penalty rates or other compensation for working on the public holiday
• employee status (whether they’re full-time, part-time, casual or work shift work)
• the amount of notice you gave them when asking them to work on the public holiday
• the amount of notice given by the employee if they do not want to work on the public holiday
• any other relevant matter