Public holidays after your last day of work in New Zealand

The rule

Employment New Zealand states that to work out whether an employee is entitled to be paid for public holidays that happen after their employment has ended, the employer treats any unused annual holidays the employee is entitled to as if they were taking that leave immediately after their last day of employment (Employment NZ: final pay).

If a public holiday falls inside that period, the employee must be paid for it where it falls on a day they usually would have worked. The annual holiday is then extended by one day for each public holiday paid, and that extended period may contain further public holidays, which may also need to be paid.

Two conditions

• The employee has worked for the employer for at least 12 months and is entitled to annual holidays.
• The employee has unused annual holidays they are entitled to at the time employment ends.

The official worked example

Employment New Zealand's own example: Tara works Monday to Friday. On her last day of work, Friday 22 December, she has 5 days of annual leave entitlement left. Those 5 days are added on to her end date, making her official last day Friday 29 December. Two public holidays fall in that period, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, so she must be paid for them.

The 2 days of annual leave that would have covered those public holidays are then added on to the Monday and Tuesday of the following week, creating an extended period ending on 2 January. That period includes the public holidays on 1 and 2 January, so those must also be treated and paid as public holidays. The final 2 annual holidays are then taken on 3 and 4 January.

1. Take the number of entitled but unused annual holiday days at your last day.
2. Lay them out across the days you would otherwise have worked, starting the next working day.
3. Any public holiday landing on one of those days is paid as a public holiday, not as annual leave.
4. Add a day of annual leave back for each public holiday paid, and repeat until the leave runs out.

In Employment New Zealand's example, Tara must be paid for 5 days of annual leave and 4 public holidays. Leaving in late December with leave owing is materially different from leaving in late July.

How the public holidays themselves are paid

Public holiday pay uses relevant daily pay, which is what the employee would have earned if they had worked on the day, or average daily pay where relevant daily pay is not possible or practicable to work out or where daily pay varies in the pay period (Employment NZ: public holiday pay). It is a daily calculation, not the weekly rate used for annual holidays, which is why the calculator asks for the amount separately.

Alternative holidays owed to you, earned by working a public holiday that was an otherwise working day, are also paid out in the final pay. Add them to the same field.