For many people the end of year signifies a time to wind down in the lead up to the festive season. After all, there's Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's to look forward to! 

But with its plethora of public holidays, this time poses an interesting set of considerations for employers when it comes to additional penalty payments. 

Public holidays attract significant extra penalty payments of up to 325% for employees covered by an Award. And though the National Employment Standards deals with the public holidays, it also allows states to declare additional public holidays and substitute public holidays. 'Additional' meaning one extra day and 'substitute' meaning another day. 

This has an important impact on whether employees are entitled public holiday rates. For example, if a state declares a substitute day for Christmas Day, any work performed by an employee on 25 December will not attract public holiday rates. 

The Fair Work Ombudsman has a dedicated webpage displaying the current public holidays and part-day public holidays for each State and Territory and surprisingly, these can vary significantly from state to state. 

For example, Tasmania has four days of public holidays, while Queensland has six and-a-half. In Victoria, public holiday rates apply to 25, 26, 27 and 28 December, and 1 and 3 January. However, in South Australia this applies to 24 (7pm-midnight), 26, 27, 28 and 31 (7pm-midnight) December and 3 January. Not on 25 December or 1 January.   

Furthermore, with Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day all falling on weekends, employers will need to pay particular attention to this year to ensure unintentional underpayment does not occur. 

If you require clarification or assistance with understanding your obligations relating to penalty payments this festive season, contact our Workplace Relations team today.