What public holiday entitlements apply for Easter in 2010?

The public holidays over the Easter period are Good Friday [April 2] and Easter Monday. Employees working on Easter Monday are entitled to payment at time and a half plus a holiday in lieu. Easter Sunday is NOT classed as a public holiday. This means that those employees who normally work on Sunday are not entitled to a paid day off, or time and a half for the hours they work (unless this is provided for in their employment agreement).

If an employee works on Easter Sunday, then payment for that day would be at the ordinary rate of pay unless it was otherwise negotiated between the employer and the employee. If an employee did not work on that day due to the shop being closed as a part of its restrictions under the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990, and Sunday is the employee’s normal day of work, then payment for that day would be a contractual matter between the employee and employer (that is, it would depend on the terms and conditions of the employee’s employment agreement).

Typically, under common law principles, where an employee is available, willing and able to do work on a particular day and this day is a contracted day of work for the employee, then the employer has an obligation to provide the employee with work for that day. If the employer did not provide work, and it was through no fault of the employee’s that they were unable to work, then there could be an obligation for the employer to pay wages for that particular day. However, as this is under common law principles, this can be superseded by any other agreement made between the two parties.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are also restricted trading days, which means that some shops must be closed. Garden Centres must be closed on Good Friday but are among the few shops allowed to trade on Easter Sunday. All shops can trade on Easter Monday

View the website www.dol.govt.nz for more information.