Over the next couple of months, we have several public holidays coming up. But how do you treat these in JobKeeper?
Public holidays (extract from Fair Work Ombudsman)
Public holiday pay needs to be included when calculating an employee’s usual pay if the employee:
- Would usually have worked on the public holiday if the JobKeeper enabling stand down direction hadn’t been given.
- Would have been entitled to time off without loss of pay.
Public holidays during a stand down
Employees who are stood down without pay by their employer under the Fair Work Act are still entitled to be paid for public holidays that fall during the stand down period. This applies if the employee would generally have ordinary hours of work falling on the day of the public holiday.
Example from Fair Work Ombudsman
Bookkeeping for Public Holidays and JobKeeper
The employee is entitled to the average amount they would have been paid for the Public Holiday, even if they are subject to a standdown provision. Then consider the JobKeeper fortnight total amount being paid. The employer must pay the greater of:
- the JobKeeper amount ($1,200 or $750 depending on the Tier for the employee) and
- The amount to be paid for work performed which includes payment for public holidays
