Holidays Act Case Studies

How well do you know your way around The Holidays Act? See if you know the correct answers to these case studies. 

Case 1

Gerald works full time with his normal working hours being 10 hours per day Monday to Thursday.  For the past six months, he has been working 4 hours overtime most Fridays, but not every Friday. Gerald did not work on Good Friday, but still expected to be paid and when he wasn’t he queried this with his employer. His employer said that as Friday was not his normal working day he wasn’t entitled to be paid for a Public Holiday falling on a Friday. Who is correct?

Case 2

Company NZ, (Fruit business) had Individual Employment Agreements with their employees for 40 hour working weeks Monday to Friday. They also had a clause that fruit could not be picked on a day where it rained for quality reasons and the employee would not be paid if they could not work because of rain. When it rained on Easter Monday, the employer did not pay the employees for that Public Holiday. The employees complained that they should be paid because Monday was a normal working day.  Who is correct? 

Answer - Case 1

Gerald’s employer is incorrect. Gerald had been working the majority of Fridays and had a reasonable expectation that if it wasn’t a Public Holiday that he would have been expected to work overtime as usual on that Friday for 4 hours. Gerald was entitled to 4 hours overtime payment for Good Friday.

Answer - Case 2

The Employer is correct. Because it was raining on Easter Monday the employees would not normally have been able to work on that day and so it was not treated as a normal working day and no pay was applicable for that Public Holiday.