Public Holidays

Public Holidays on Regular Working Days

If a public holiday falls on a regular working day, employees must be paid for that day, regardless of whether they come to work. If they do work on that day, they need to be compensated at double their daily rate for that day. If they work overtime, i.e., more than the required hours on that day, they need to be compensated at a double rate for those hours seen as overtime. For example:

There is a public holiday on a Wednesday. Usually, a Wednesday is a regular working day, and all employees are required to work 8 hours. All employees must be paid for 8 hours, regardless of whether they work or not.

If an employee comes to work on this day and works 8 hours, they need to be compensated for an additional 8 hours, meaning they get paid double for that day.

If an employee works more than 8 hours on that day, i.e., overtime, they are compensated at a double rate for all overtime.

Public Holidays on Optional Working Days

If a public holiday falls on an optional working day, employees do not need to be compensated for that day if they do not come to work. If they do come to work however, they need to be compensated at double the rate for each hour that they have worked.

For example:

There is a public holiday on a Saturday. Usually, the employee doesn’t work on a Saturday, then the Saturday is seen as an optional working day, and employees are not required to work. If employees do not work on this day, they do not get any pay. If employees work on this day, they are compensated at double the rate for all clocked hours because it is still a public holiday.