This is applicable to all employees regardless of earnings levels.
If a public holiday falls on a day on which an employee would ordinarily work, an employer must pay an employee who does not work on that day, at least the wage that the employee would have received for working on that day.
If an employee does work on a public holiday that falls on day that the employee would ordinarily have worked, he must be paid:
- At least double the wage he would ordinarily have received for working on that day; or
- If it is greater, one day’s normal pay plus the amount earned by the employee for the time worked on that day
This is applicable to all employees earning less that the current exemption limit, which is currently to R183 008 per annum, with effect from 1 July 2012.
If an employee works on a public holiday that falls on a day on which the employee would not ordinarily work, he must be paid:
- His ordinary daily wage; plus
- The amount he has earned for the work performed on the public holiday, whether calculated by reference to time worked or any other method.
If a shift worked falls partly on a public holiday and partly on a non-public holiday, the whole shift is deemed to have been worked on the day in which the greater part of the shift was worked.
Note that ‘wage’, for the purpose of payment for a public holiday, has the same meaning as for overtime (basically the cash component or basic pay).
An interesting Labour Court decision was made in 2006, following a dispute between a trade union and an employer whose staff worked continuous shifts (including Sundays). When a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Public Holidays Act provides that the following Monday becomes a public holiday. The dispute was whether the Sunday reverted to being a normal Sunday, or whether the Sunday remained a public holiday. The decision was that both days were public holidays (which had an effect on the payment to made to employees for working on that day).