LOCKDOWN AND PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

CEFA

With Good Friday on Friday, 10 April 2020 and Family Day on 13 April 2020, it is important that members understand their legal obligations in relation to payment for and exchange of public holidays during the lockdown period.

In terms of the Public Holidays Act, an employee is entitled to be paid for the number of public holidays provided for by the Act.

Section 18 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and Section 11 and 38 of the Main Agreement regulates payment for work, on public holidays. These sections distinguishes between days on which the employee would ordinarily have worked, and days on which the employee would not ordinarily have worked.

Should the employee not be required to work on the public holiday that falls on a day on which s/he would ordinarily have worked, the employee must be paid her or his ordinary wage.

In most cases, employees ordinarily work on a Friday and a Monday, the days on which Good Friday and Family Day fall, and they would accordingly be entitled to receive their ordinary remuneration.

Irrespective of the lockdown, most employees would in any event not have worked on these public holidays, and as such, they would be entitled to be paid for those days.

Employees who work on Good Friday and Family Day, engaged in essential services would be entitled to be paid their public holiday premium in terms of the BCEA or Main Agreement.

The Public Holiday Act and Section 38 of the Main Agreement also provides that any public holiday may be exchangeable for any other day which is agreed between an employer and employee/s. This means that it is possible for employers and employees to agree that the actual public holiday would be treated as a normal day, and that another day in the year would be treated as the public holiday.

It is therefore possible for employers to treat this coming Good Friday and Family Day as normal days during the lockdown. Those employees who are currently on no-work-no-pay could, by agreement, not be paid for these days, but they would then be entitled to get two days’ paid off at some point after the lockdown. In the event that no agreement is reached, employees on the no-work-no-pay arrangement would be entitled to be paid for the public holidays.

Ends.