If an employee is absent from work on a day or partday that is a public holiday, the employer must pay the employee (other than a casual employee) the base rate of pay for the employee’s ordinary hours of work on that day or part-day. The base rate of pay to be paid excludes incentive-based payments and bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime or penalty rates, or any other separately identifiable amounts.

However, an employee is not entitled to payment if they do not have ordinary hours of work on the public holiday.
For example, a part-time employee is not entitled to payment if their part-time hours do not include the day of the week on which the public holiday falls.

Illustrative example

Stephanie is a full-time employee who usually works overtime in addition to her ordinary hours of work on Tuesdays. She receives penalty rates for these overtime hours under the applicable modern award. Stephanie is absent on the public holiday on Tuesday, 26 January 2010, and is entitled to her base rate of pay for her ordinary hours. She is not entitled to payment for the overtime hours she would have usually worked had it not been a public holiday.

Stephanie’s colleague John is a part-time employee who is rostered to work Wednesday to Friday each week. As John’s ordinary hours of work do not include Tuesdays, he is not entitled to payment for the public holiday on 26 January 2010.