Still confused about Public Holidays?

You’re forgiven if you are! The recent Federal Court decision on public holidays means that your employer must make a reasonable request that you work on a public holiday. That request must leave you with a choice as to whether to work or not, subject to specific criteria. Once an employee notifies the employer that they do not want to work on the public holiday the employer has to consider this and decide whether they agree or don’t agree.
 
The bottom line is if the employer wants the employee to work on a public holiday, it must be on a reasonable basis. Click here to read a more extensive review of the requirements.

The Services Union has had enquiries from members at Virgin Australia about the process to be followed if an employee wants to notify the airline that they do not want to work on a public holiday and whether the request has to be made on a particular form. We have written to Virgin and asked what the process is. We will let you know when we hear back from them.

In the meantime, if you want to decline to work on a public holiday you should email your supervisor and notify that you do not want to work and state your reason for not wanting to. It might be that you can’t get childcare for example. The employer must consider your request and decide the issue on a reasonable basis.

Please contact Services Connect on 07 3844 5300 if you would like more information.