Alternative Days
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- Last Updated: Wednesday, 26 February 2025 14:32
Alternative Days were previously known as Days-in-Lieu.
Section 12(4) of the Holidays Act reads:-
For the purposes of public holidays, if an employee would otherwise work any amount of time on a public holiday, that day must be treated as a day that would otherwise be a working day for the employee.
Meaning: If an employee is required to work on any part of a Public holiday he must be credited an alternative day to enable the holiday to be taken at some later time when convenient to the employee.
The intention of the Act is quite clear. There are mostly 12 Public holidays each year in New Zealand. Every employee is entitled to enjoy each one of these. If an employee should be required to work on any one of them they are to be given another Alternative paid day off to replace it. If they were not required to work, either because it was already a non-working day, such as weekend or rostered day off, they are then able to enjoy the holiday instead but without payment because it was not otherwise a working day. However, if they were expected to work and took the day off instead, it would otherwise have been a working day and they receive their normal pay for that day.
Payment for time worked on the public holiday is covered elsewhere under the Holidays Act, but does not affect the Alternative Day in any way. It simply replaces the public holiday that the employee missed.