Your rights: Holiday provision depends on working arrangement

Q. My former employer did not pay part-time/casual employees for holiday pay or sick leave. He was of the view that he does not do holiday pay.

It was only after I made a big deal about holiday pay when I left that he paid me outstanding holiday pay. I know he has other part-time employees working for him, who do not receive holiday pay.

Is an employer required to pay holiday pay to part-time/casual employees and are part-time employees not entitled to sick leave?

A. It is legal for holiday pay for casual employees with no fixed hours to be paid during each payment cycle. This is commonly referred to as pay-as-you-go.

Pay-as-you-go holiday pay applies to those employees whose employment is so intermittent or irregular that it is impracticable for the employer to make provision for a three-week annual holiday.

The employee must agree to the pay-as-you-go arrangement in their employment agreement. The holiday pay must be paid at a rate of not less than 6 per cent of the employee's gross earnings.

Where an employee is employed on a permanent part-time agreement with a regular roster, an employee may be entitled to three weeks' annual leave.

Casual employees are entitled to sick and bereavement leave after six months' continuous service, if during those six months they have worked at least an average of 10 hours a week and not less than one hour in every week or no less than 40 hours per month.

A casual employee who qualifies for sick leave will be entitled to sick leave if the day(s) on which they intend to take sick leave would otherwise be a working day for them. If the employee would not otherwise work on any day that they are sick, then they will not be entitled to sick leave for that day.

An employer may request a medical certificate if any employee is sick for three consecutive calendar days, regardless of whether those days would otherwise be working days.

Employment Relations Service

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