Employee entitlements over the holiday season
The holiday season is often hectic enough without having to determine employee entitlements so we’ve put together some commonly asked questions and answers to assist you during the silly season.Q: What are the public holidays?A: Christmas Day – Thursday 25 December 2014Boxing Day – Friday 26 December 2014New Year’s Day – Thursday 1 January 20152 January Holiday – Friday 2 January 2015Q: Who’s entitled to a paid public holiday?A: All employees for whom the day is otherwise a working day will be entitled to a paid public holiday.Q: What does ‘otherwise a working day’ mean?A: In many cases it’s very clear, however if it’s not then ask yourselves “if it wasn’t a public holiday would the employee normally work on the particular day of the week/month”. Also consider what’s contained in the employment agreement, work patterns and rosters.Q: What if we closedown over Christmas - are public holidays paid?A: Consider the same as listed above for ‘otherwise a working day’. This means employees may be entitled to paid public holidays during closedown periods.Q: What if an employee leaves before a public holiday, are they entitled to a paid day?A: If the employee has an entitlement to annual holidays at the time their employment ends and it falls within their entitlement then yes. This is not the same for accrued leave, so if an employee has not completed 12 months of continuous employment then they have no annual holiday entitlement.Q: What if you work on a public holiday?A: If you’re required to work you are entitled to be paid time and a half for the hours worked on the day. If the day is ‘otherwise a working day’ for the employee they are also entitled to an alternative holiday / day in lieu to be used at a time and date agreeable to both parties.Q: Can an employee cash up annual leave?A: If both parties agree, you can cash in a maximum of one week of annual leave. If an employee has ‘cashed-in’ annual leave it must be treated as an extra pay and taxed as a lump sum instead of holiday pay.Do you spend hours calculating and processing your payroll?Do you have cashflow issues around the 20th when PAYE is due?Have you ever been late in filing or paying your PAYE and been charged penalties?Do you struggle to keep track of employee entitlements like holidays, sick leave, etc?If you answered yes to any of the above then this ‘pain’ can all be eliminated by an online payroll system.SmartPayroll is the latest payroll system taking all the administration out of payroll. No longer do you have to waste time processing the payroll, then logging on to online banking to physically pay your staff, and best of all you don’t even need to remember to pay the IRD or file another PAYE schedule! SmartPayroll does this all for you and is cost effective.If you think you could benefit from an online system then phone us, or come and have a chat about your options today.This post is by Jolene Hannah from Legacy