Christmas and New Year 2026 for employers: public holidays, closedowns and the hours to record

The four holidays and where they fall this year

Section 44 of the Holidays Act 2003 lists Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and 2 January as public holidays. Section 45 decides which day each employee gets when one lands on a weekend, and this season two do.

The rule follows the person, not the business. If a holiday falls on a Saturday and that Saturday would otherwise be a working day for the employee, the holiday stays on the Saturday. If it would not, the holiday moves to the following Monday. Section 45(2) caps the total: nobody gets more than four public holidays for these four days, so a Saturday worker does not also get the Monday as a holiday.

Pay for a public holiday goes in the pay period the holiday falls in, so check which pay run each person's dates land in.

Who gets which day: Mondayising and the otherwise working day

Everything turns on whether the day would otherwise be a working day for that employee. For most permanent staff, the agreement and roster make it obvious. Where it is not clear, section 12 says you and the employee must try to agree, taking into account the agreement, their work pattern, whether they work only when work is available, your rosters, and what each of you reasonably expected. If they would have worked any amount of time that day, it counts.

Three common patterns this season:

• Monday to Friday staff get Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December, Friday 1 January and Monday 4 January as paid days off.
• Staff who work Saturdays, on a Monday to Saturday or Tuesday to Saturday roster, keep Boxing Day and 2 January on the Saturdays. The Mondays after are ordinary days for them, paid at ordinary rates if they work.
• Staff who work neither Saturday nor Monday, such as a Tuesday to Friday worker, get Christmas Day and New Year's Day off with pay, but nothing for Boxing Day or 2 January, because the Mondays those holidays move to are not working days for them either.

Someone who does not work a public holiday that is an otherwise working day must be paid at least their relevant daily pay, or their average daily pay where relevant daily pay cannot be worked out or their daily pay varies (s 49). Employment New Zealand is plain about one trap: you cannot take someone off the roster for a public holiday they would otherwise have worked to avoid paying for it.

Closing on Monday 28 December so everyone is off together? For Saturday staff that Monday is an ordinary day. Employment New Zealand says you can close only if the agreement allows it and you act in good faith, and you still pay anyone who would have worked unless their agreement says otherwise. They can agree to use annual leave for it instead.

Working a public holiday: time and a half and an alternative holiday

You can require someone to work a public holiday only if it is an otherwise working day for them and their employment agreement requires it (s 47). Otherwise, working it is their choice.

For time worked on a public holiday, section 50 requires the greater of two amounts: their relevant daily pay, or average daily pay, for the time worked, less any penal rates, plus half that amount again; or their relevant daily pay for that time including the penal rates. A holiday rate already in the agreement does not stack on top of time and a half; they get whichever is more. Calculate's public holiday pay calculator works through the arithmetic for one person.

If the holiday was an otherwise working day, working any part of it also earns an alternative holiday (s 56): a whole paid day off on another working day, however short the shift on the holiday was (s 57). If it was not an otherwise working day, they get time and a half but no alternative holiday. A shift across midnight counts on both days. Employment New Zealand's example is a night shift from 10 at night on Christmas Day to 6 the next morning: at least time and a half for all eight hours, and two alternative holidays when both days are otherwise working days for that person.

The alternative holiday is taken on a day you agree. If you cannot agree, you may set a date on a reasonable basis with at least 14 days' notice. It is paid at relevant daily pay or average daily pay (s 60), and paid out in final pay if never taken. After 12 months, the employee can ask to exchange it for a payment, which you may agree to (s 61). Staff employed only to work public holidays earn none. On-call staff have their own rule in section 59, explained in our article on on-call and standby pay.

Casual staff, rostered staff and closedowns

Casual staff

Employment New Zealand says casual employees generally do not have otherwise working days, because they have no set days. A casual can still have one if they have worked regularly on that day, agreed to work it, or could reasonably have expected to, and there is no rule about how many weeks makes a pattern. Check recent rosters or timesheets for the same weekday. If someone has been rostered week after week, Employment New Zealand warns they may not be truly casual. A casual who works a holiday that is not an otherwise working day still gets time and a half.

Rostered staff

For rotating rosters, the roster decides: the person whose roster would have had them working the holiday gets it, and a colleague on the opposite week does not. This season, check each roster for the Saturdays as well as the Mondays.

Staff on pay-as-you-go holiday pay

Pay-as-you-go holiday pay is at least 8% of gross earnings, paid with wages instead of annual holidays, and only for fixed-term agreements under 12 months or work so irregular that four weeks' annual holidays is impracticable (s 28). It replaces annual holidays, not public holidays, which the Act says are in addition to annual holidays (s 46). A pay-as-you-go employee who works Christmas Day is paid time and a half, and earns an alternative holiday if it was an otherwise working day. Calculate has a pay-as-you-go holiday pay calculator.

Closedowns

A closedown is when you customarily close, or stop some people's work, and require staff to take annual holidays (s 29). You can have one in any 12 months (s 30), with different periods for separate parts of the business, and each employee needs at least 14 days' notice (s 32). Staff entitled to annual holidays take the closedown as annual holidays, as far as their entitlement covers it (s 33). Staff not yet entitled are paid 8% of their gross earnings since they started, or since they last became entitled, less anything already paid in advance or as pay-as-you-go, and their anniversary date moves to the start of the closedown or a nearby date you nominate (ss 34 and 35). Leave in advance is only by agreement.

Public holidays inside a closedown are not annual leave. Section 12(3A) says you decide whether each is an otherwise working day as if the closedown were not happening, and section 40 says a public holiday during annual holidays stays a public holiday. In a closedown from Friday 25 December to Monday 4 January, a Monday to Friday employee has four paid public holidays and three days of annual leave: 29, 30 and 31 December. For someone who normally works Saturdays and Mondays, Boxing Day and 2 January stay on the Saturdays, and the two Mondays become closedown days. Our guide to leave in New Zealand sets out the rules your staff will be reading.

The hours to record for each person

Section 81 requires a holiday and leave record for every employee, with each entry kept for at least six years. For this season, that means, for each person:

• the dates of each public holiday they worked, the hours they worked on it and what you paid;
• the date each alternative holiday was earned, then when it was taken and what was paid, or any payment agreed in exchange for it;
• the dates of, and pay for, public holidays and alternative holidays they did not work but were paid for;
• the dates and pay of annual holidays taken in a closedown, and the date they last became entitled to annual holidays, which moves for anyone paid 8% at the closedown.

It also pays to note whether each holiday was an otherwise working day for that person and why, because that is where most disputes start. Our article on wage and time records for employers covers the rest of both records, staff access and the penalties for missing them.

In January, the first question payroll asks is simple: who worked which holiday, and for how long. Team timesheets from jobtracker.co.nz shows the hours your people choose to share, by person and date, so you can see who logged hours on each holiday and how many, and download them as a CSV. It does not calculate holiday pay or time and a half, track alternative holidays or leave balances, or decide whether a day was an otherwise working day; those stay with you and your payroll software. Sharing is each person's choice, so it sits beside your wages and time record, never in place of it.

What changes from August 2028

The Employment Leave Act 2026 replaces the Holidays Act on 6 August 2028, and Employment New Zealand says employers must follow the Holidays Act until then. The Christmas and New Year transfer rule carries over in the same terms (s 59). Where the agreement does not settle the otherwise working day, the new Act sets a test: the employee worked, or was on leave, on 50% or more of the same weekday in the 13 weeks before (s 14). Working a public holiday pays the agreed rate, less any extra for the day, plus the greater of 50% of the ordinary hourly rate or that extra (s 121), and alternative leave is earned hour for hour instead of as a whole day (s 63). A closedown will need 21 days' written notice instead of 14 (s 48). Our article on the Employment Leave Act 2026 has the detail.

These are minimums. Where a case is unclear, call Employment New Zealand on 0800 20 90 20 or talk to an employment lawyer.

See who worked each holiday