Alternative holiday (day in lieu): when you get one and what it pays

When you get one

Section 56 of the Holidays Act 2003 gives you an alternative holiday when two things are true: the public holiday falls on an otherwise working day for you, and you work any part of it. A few hours is enough. A night shift that runs from 10pm on Christmas Day to 6am on Boxing Day, when both are otherwise working days, earns two alternative holidays.

• On call: if you are on call on an otherwise working day and are called in, you get one. If you are not called in, you still get one if the on-call conditions restricted you so much that you did not really have a holiday.
• Only public holidays: if you are employed to work only on public holidays, you get time and a half but no alternative holiday.
• Not a usual day: working a public holiday that is not an otherwise working day for you pays at least time and a half, but earns no alternative holiday unless your agreement gives one.
• Sick instead: if you were rostered to work a public holiday but are sick or bereaved, the day stays a public holiday, paid at your relevant or average daily pay, with no time and a half and no alternative holiday.

A worked example: four hours on Labour Day

Matiu works Monday to Friday, 8 hours a day, at $32 an hour. Labour Day falls on Monday 26 October 2026, and he works 4 hours in the morning.

The alternative holiday is a whole working day, however little he worked on the public holiday, and it is paid for the day he takes off, not the hours he worked on Labour Day. Our article on whether shift work is worth it shows how public holiday pay adds up across a year.

Taking it and being paid for it

You take an alternative holiday on a day you agree with your employer, and it must be a day you would otherwise work and not a public holiday. If you cannot agree, your employer can choose the day, on a reasonable basis, with at least 14 days' notice. It is paid at no less than your relevant daily pay, or average daily pay where that applies, in the pay for the period you take it.

Alternative holidays do not expire. Once 12 months have passed since you became entitled to one, you can ask for it to be paid out instead. Your employer does not have to agree, and if it does, you are paid the amount you both agree. If you leave with one untaken, it must be paid in your final pay, at your relevant daily pay or average daily pay for your last day. Our guide to leave entitlements in New Zealand covers public holidays and final pay.

Keeping count, and the change in 2028

Alternative holidays are easy to lose track of over a busy year. Your Career's Leave section lets you log each public holiday you work and each alternative day you take, and keeps count of the alternative days still owed to you. The demo shows the Leave section with no account needed.

These are Holidays Act 2003 rules. The Employment Leave Act 2026 replaces it on 6 August 2028; until then the current rules apply, and Employment New Zealand says employers cannot follow the new law early. Under the new Act, alternative holidays become alternative leave, counted in hours: an hour for each hour you work on the public holiday, and you can ask in writing to cash it up at any time, which your employer can still decline.

Never lose count of a day in lieu