Blog
Easter 2023 Public Holidays: Wage penalties and provisions
Tuesday April 4, 2023
The following dates are public holidays for Easter 2023 and will incur public holiday penalties/provisions:
• Friday 7 April 2023 (Good Friday)
• Sunday 9 April 2023 (Easter Sunday)
• Monday 10 April 2023 (Easter Monday)
Note: Easter Sunday will be observed on the actual day and is not substituted to another day solely because it falls on a weekend.
If an employee is absent from work on a day or part day that is a public holiday, the employer must pay the employee (excluding a casual) the base rate of pay for the employee’s ordinary hours of work that they would have done (*ordinary working day). The base rate of pay excludes incentive-based payments, bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime or penalty rates, or any other separately identifiable amounts.
A part time employee is not entitled to payment if the public holiday occurs on a day which the employee is not normally rostered to work. For example, if Dr Smith is regularly rostered Wednesday to Friday each week, they will not be entitled to payment for public holidays that occur on a Monday.
WA Health:
Pursuant to clause 32 (5) of the WA Health System – Medical Practitioners – AMA Industrial Agreement 2022, all ordinary hours worked between midnight at the commencement of a public holiday and 8am on the day after the public holiday must be paid:
- With an additional penalty of 150 per cent (calculated on the applicable arrangement B salary for Senior Practitioners); or
- With an additional penalty of 50 per cent, plus a credit of one day in lieu as “PH TOIL” (by mutual agreement only).
If you are not rostered to work on a public holiday, however, are ordinarily rostered to work on that day, you are entitled to be paid as if the day was an ordinary working day*, or if your Employer agrees, be allowed to take a day holiday in lieu at a time mutually acceptable, as per clause 35 (4).
Private Practice:
For private practice employers who are remaining open on any of the Easter 2023 dates a reminder of the applicable penalty rates for the relevant awards:
Federal/National System Employers:
Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020
- 250 per cent of the ordinary hourly rate.
Nurses Award 2020
- 200 per cent of the ordinary hourly rate.
State System Employers:
Clerks (Commercial, Social and Professional Services) Award – 1972
- 250 per cent of the ordinary hourly rate.
Nurses (Doctors Surgeries) Award – 1977
- 150 per cent of the ordinary hourly rate for ordinary hours, 250 per cent for hours in excess of ordinary hours.
