Understanding Public Holidays and How They Impact My Employees
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act sets out that public holiday(s) are concluded in accordance with an agreement. The payment of public holidays determines if the employee would or would not ordinarily work on such day and provides that if an employee does not work on the public holiday he/she shall be entitled to receive at least the wage that the employee would ordinarily have received for work on that day.
If an employee does work on the public holiday at least double the amount that the employee would have ordinarily have received on that day. If it is greater (for example: employees who work half a day) the Act provides that the employee shall receive his/her ordinary wage for work that day and for time worked on that day should it exceed the half day the employee would ordinarily have worked.
The Act further provides that if an employee works on a public holiday on which the employee would not ordinarily work (say for example: his or her shift does not ordinarily fall on such public holiday day), the employer must pay the employee the amount equal to; the employees’ ordinary daily wage and the amount earned by the employee for work performed on that day or time worked.
As for shift workers, if a greater portion of the employees shift falls on a public holiday say Thursday from 18h00 to 02h00 the Friday then the whole shift is deemed to have been worked on the public holiday, however if the greater portion of the shift was worked on the other day say from Thursday 21h00 to 18h00 the Friday then the whole shift is deemed to have been worked on the other day and therefore not seen as a public holiday worked by the employee. The Employer must pay the employee for a public holiday on the employees usual pay day.
This article aims to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. For more information contact 021 919 6418 OR erin@joblaw.co.za
