Labor laws apply to public holiday in honor of Late Queen’s funeral

(CMR)  The Department of Labour and Pensions has confirmed that labor laws regarding public holidays apply to Monday, 19 September, which has been declared a public holiday by the Government in honor of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II State Funeral.

CMR reached out to the Department following numerous questions from our audience. The Department provided the following response:

Regarding compensation for a public holiday, section 16 of the Labour Act (2021 Revision) states that all employees are to receive their regular wage for the hours they would have worked had it not been a public holiday. However, each employee is required to work their scheduled work day immediately before and immediately after the public holiday in order to qualify for the public holiday pay.

Example –  An employee was last scheduled to work on September 14, 2022, with their next scheduled work day after the public holiday being September 20, 2022, and the employee attends work on both days. This employee is now entitled to be paid the basic wage for the hours they would have worked had it not been a public holiday.

Another example is if the individual was scheduled to work on the dates mentioned above but fell ill and could not attend work on September 14, 2022. Unfortunately, that employee is not required to be compensated for the public holiday pay as they could not work on their scheduled day before the public holiday.

In the case of employees being scheduled “off” on a public holiday, they are to still benefit from the public holiday by receiving their basic wage for that day once they worked their scheduled day before and after the public holiday. Seeing that a planned day off (rest day) should not be placed on a public holiday, that employee is now also entitled to another day off as there are two separate entitlements. This also applies to employees on vacation or approved maternity leave at the time of the public holiday.

However, if a business does not normally operate/open on Monday, employees would not be entitled to any compensation for public holidays, which falls on a Monday. This is because Mondays are not considered a day of work.

Please note that any employee who works on a public holiday must be paid double time for the hours worked. However, if the employees’ standard work day is eight hours but they are only required to work four hours on the public holiday, that employee should receive double pay for the four hours worked and their basic wage (regular wage) for the remaining four hours of the day.

By virtue of subsection 4, the employer and employee can agree that the employee would receive time off in lieu of payment for public holiday pay to which they are entitled.

Section 16 subsection 5 states that Employees of Professional or Managerial level (once agreed in their contracts) are not required to receive double pay for hours worked on a public holiday.

Definition of a Professional / Managerial level – “employees of managerial level,” include persons who plan, organize, control, coordinate, or direct the business of an employer or a part of such business. “Employees of professional level” include persons who perform professional functions in the fields of physical and natural sciences, engineering, law, medicine, religion, education, literature, art, entertainment, or sport.

See Section 16 of the Labour Act (2021 Revision):