This year, Boxing Day and the day after New Year’s Day fall on a Saturday and are ‘Mondayised’ – how this affects employees depends on when they would normally work
Some public holidays are attached to a specific day of the week, for example, Queen’s Birthday is always on a Monday. Other public holidays are attached to calendar dates so the day they are celebrated on moves through the days of the week:
- New Year’s Day (1 January)
- the day after New Year’s Day (2 January)
- Waitangi Day (6 February)
- ANZAC Day (25 April)
- Christmas Day (25 December), and
- Boxing Day (26 December).
Mondayisation happens when an employee’s public holiday which falls on a Saturday or Sunday is moved to the following Monday (or in some cases Tuesday). Mondayisation only happens if the employee doesn’t normally work on the calendar date of the holiday. If an employee normally works on the day of the public holiday’s calendar date then there is no Mondayisation for them and their public holiday benefits apply to the calendar date.
Otherwise working days has more information.
If an employee would normally work on both the calendar date of the public holiday and the possible mondayisation date, their public holiday is on the calendar date. They don’t get two public holidays.
Mondayisation does not affect and is not affected by shop trading restrictions which happen on days such as Easter Sunday and Anzac Day morning. These always apply on the calendar date of certain holidays.
Restricted shop trading days provides useful information about trading restrictions.
View the Mondayisation Flow Chart [PDF 379KB].
Public holiday falls on a Saturday and:
- the employee wouldn’t normally work on the Saturday, then their holiday entitlement is transferred to the following Monday, or
- the employee would normally work on the Saturday, then they will get their holiday entitlements on the Saturday (the calendar date of the public holiday).
View the table of entitlements for a calendar date public holiday falling on a Saturday.
Public holiday falls on a Sunday and:
- the employee wouldn’t normally work on the Sunday, then they will get their holiday entitlements on either the following Monday (in the case of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day), or the following Tuesday (in the case of Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Boxing Day and the day after New Year’s Day).
- an employee would normally work on the Sunday, then they will get their holiday entitlements on the Sunday (the calendar date of the public holiday).
View the table of entitlements for a calendar date public holiday falling on a Sunday.
Deciding which day an employee normally works for Mondayisation
When an employee does not have a clear work pattern or there is a lot of variation in work times, it may be hard to decide if they would have normally worked on a Saturday or Sunday a public holiday falls on. You can use the Otherwise working day calculator to help you.
An employer can’t take an employee off the roster on a public holiday, when it is a day that they would normally work, so that they don’t have to give the employee public holiday entitlements. Not recognising an employee’s holiday entitlements is against the law.
