Does Christmas count as annual leave?

Your employer does not have to give you time off on a bank holiday or at Christmas if they’re not included in your holiday entitlement. This is the same whether you work full time or part time. Your employer can also make you take your holiday on bank holidays or at Christmas.

Can you be forced to take annual leave during Christmas?

Section 94(5) of the Fair Work Act provides that: An employer may require an award/agreement free employee to take a period of paid annual leave, but only if the requirement is reasonable. (b) the employer’s enterprise is being shut down for a period (for example, between Christmas and New Year).

Can you be forced to take holiday over Christmas?

Your employer can: refuse holiday at certain times, for example during busy periods, but they cannot refuse to let you take any holiday at all. make you take holiday at certain times, such as Christmas or bank holidays.

Is Christmas Day paid holiday?

Monday 28 December is considered an additional public holiday in the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. If an employee is on unpaid leave on the day before and the day after a public holiday, they will not be entitled to payment for such public holiday.

Can I be sacked for not working Christmas Day?

Do I have to? Although there is no automatic right not to work on Christmas Day, many people have the right to either time off or extra pay on Christmas Day through their contract with their employer. Your contract may also say something about when you may be required to work overtime.

Can my employer stop me from taking annual leave?

Your employer can refuse permission for your holiday as long as they give you notice which is at least as long as the holiday requested. So to refuse a request for a week’s leave, they would have to tell you a week in advance. Your contract may set out other rules about when you can take your holiday.

What happens if a holiday falls on my day off?

Some supervisors say the Holiday moves while other supervisors say the employee’s regular day off moves. The rules basically are that if a holiday falls on an employee’s day off, then the day to be taken off, known as an ‘in lieu of day,’ is the day immediately before the employee’s day off on which the holiday falls.

Can you get fired for not working Christmas?

However, you can still get fired for not working on Christmas if your employer can show that they had an undue burden in accommodating your request for time off to celebrate Christmas. Notice and accommodation go hand-in-hand.

Do you get paid more on Christmas Day?

Often an employer will pay staff a higher wage for working on bank holidays, but this is not a legal requirement, and there is no formula saying how much more you should be paid for working any given hours. Any extra payment is up to your employer to offer, and to state in your contract when you agree to take the job.

Is it illegal to work Christmas Day?

Although there is no automatic right not to work on Christmas Day, many people have the right to either time off or extra pay on Christmas Day through their contract with their employer. Your contract may also say something about when you may be required to work overtime.

Do you have to give annual leave at Christmas?

No clause in your contract regarding Christmas annual leave? It’s not essential to have a clause in your employment contracts if you want employees to take holiday over Christmas and New Year. By law, you only need to give them at least twice the amount of notice as the number of days of holiday that you want them to take.

How many days can an employee take off for holiday?

While it’s typical for employees to limit annual leave bookings to ten working days, inevitably there are times when employees request to take off longer than this. It’s important to be aware that a blanket ban on any request to take an extended period of holiday does carry with it a potential risk of indirect discrimination.

Can a company force an employee to take annual leave?

These will determine whether you can force the employee to take annual leave during a shutdown. If not, you should then consult your employment agreement with the employee to see whether there is a relevant policy around shutting down during the Christmas holiday and New Year period.

Do you count public holidays as annual leave?

When calculating annual leave over the Christmas and New Year period it is important to remember that for permanent staff, if they would typically work the public holiday you must count that day as a public holiday rather than a day of annual leave.