Onus on employers

14 March 2011

Onus on employers

By Sarah Townsend, Associate

Canterbury employers will need to treat this Friday’s day of mourning as a public holiday.

There will be different payment obligations on employers depending on whether or not their businesses are operating, and whether employees will be required to work on the day.

If an employee does not work on 18 March, and that day would otherwise be a working day for them, the employee is entitled to be paid their “relevant daily pay”.

“Relevant daily pay” is defined under the Holidays Act 2003 and means the amount of pay that the employee would have received had they worked on the day concerned.

If an employee is required to work on 18 March, they are entitled to be paid at the rate of time and half of their relevant daily pay for time actually worked on that day. In addition, if 18 March would otherwise be a working day for the employee, they are entitled to an alternative holiday on pay.

In some circumstances, casual staff will be entitled to payment for the holiday, in the same way as permanent staff.

If an employer’s business is temporarily closed as a result of the earthquake, in most cases, the employer will still be liable to pay their employees for the public holiday.

For further information, please contact:

Sarah Townsend, 021 226 3538, s.townsend@DuncanCotterill.com

Location http://www.duncancotterill.com/index.cfm/1,159,657,0,html