Summarise with AI
What the test decides
The question is simple to state: would this employee have worked that day, had it not been a public holiday or a day of leave? A surprising amount turns on the answer.
- Public holiday not worked — paid only if it was an otherwise working day
- Public holiday worked — at least time and a half either way, but an alternative holiday is earned only if it was an otherwise working day
- Sick and bereavement leave — payable for days that would otherwise have been worked
Applying it to variable hours
On a fixed roster the answer is obvious: someone who works every Monday would have worked that Monday. The test exists for everyone else — casuals, part-timers on varying days, anyone whose pattern moves.
Where hours vary, you look at the whole picture rather than one factor:
- what the employment agreement says about days and hours
- the roster or work pattern before the day in question
- how often the employee in fact works that day of the week
- whether the employee would have worked but for the holiday, and what both parties intended
Why the roster history matters
Every factor above except the agreement is answered from records you either kept or did not. That makes past rosters and timesheets the practical evidence for the test — and it is another reason the wage and time record has a six-year retention period rather than a convenient one.
The Employment Leave Act 2026, which replaces the Holidays Act 2003 on 6 August 2028, introduces a revised otherwise-working-day test. Until then the factors above apply. Keeping clean hours data is the input either way — see time and attendance.
