Public Holiday

The Federation of Unions of South Africa has written to president Cyril Ramaphosa, requesting an additional paid Public Holiday in December 2022.

Here, the Workers’ Day public holiday fell on a Sunday and was observed on the following Monday. The BCEA addresses how employers should pay wages for employees who work on Sundays and public holidays. Consequently, the Labour Appeal Court held that if a public holiday falls on a Sunday, and a Sunday is a normal working day, then the employee who does not work on that Sunday and the following Monday will be entitled to receive standard pay for both days, said Bowmans. Where such an agreement is made, employees are usually affected in one of two ways: - If the public holiday occurs on a day the employee is expected to work, then the employee is entitled to be paid a minimum of double the standard wages for the day or the standard daily wage plus the wage for the time worked on the holiday, whichever is higher; or - If the employee is not ordinarily expected to work on that public holiday but is requested to do so, they must be paid their standard daily wage plus the wage for the time worked on the holiday.