What is Public Holiday Off-in-Lieu and Are Your Employees Entitled to it?

What is Public Holiday Off-in-Lieu?

In accordance with the Employment Act, all employees under a contract of service with an employer are entitled to 11 paid public holidays in a year.

In such cases where employees are required to work on public holidays, the employer should either pay for an additional day or provide time off-in-lieu, as per mutual agreement.

💡Note: If the holiday falls on a rest day, the next working day will be a paid holiday.

If a public holiday falls on a non-working day, employees are entitled to either time off-in-lieu or one extra day of salary-in-lieu, in compliance with the updated employment law that came into effect in April 2019.

If the employees work a 5-day week and the public holiday falls on a Saturday, they should receive a day off-in-lieu or salary-in-lieu.

If the employees work a 6-day week, a public holiday that falls on a Saturday will NOT give them an extra day of on Monday the following week.

If the public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following working day, Monday, will automatically be a paid public holiday.

If a public holiday falls on the employee’s rest day, the following working day will be a paid public holiday.

Who is Entitled to Public Holiday Pay?

Employees are entitled to a gross rate of pay on a public holiday, if:

• They were NOT absent on the working day immediately before or after a holiday without consent or a reasonable excuse.
• They are on authorised leave (e.g. sick leave, annual leave, unpaid leave) on the day immediately before or after a holiday.

Time Off-in-Lieu for Employees Not Covered under Part IV of Employment Act

For employees who are NOT covered under Part IV of the Employment Act, the employer can grant time off-in-lieu of working on a public holiday. Keep in mind that the time off should consist of a mutually agreed number of hours.

However, if there’s no mutual agreement on the duration of time off-in-lieu, the employer can decide on one of the following:

• Pay an extra day’s salary at the basic rate of pay for one day’s work.
• For working 4 hours or less on a holiday, grant time off-in-lieu of 4 hours on a working day.
• For working more than 4 hours on a holiday, grant a full day off on a working day.

Streamline Public Holiday Off-in-Lieu Requests with QuickHR Leave Management System!

With QuickHR’s all-inclusive Leave Management System, you can easily manage your employees’ off-in-lieu requests in real-time with a paperless and fuss-free process!

QuickHR’s leave management system is interconnected with multiple HR modules such as payroll, attendance and timesheets, expense claims, and performance evaluation, helping you build solid HR strategy with automated, simplified, and accurate HR processes.

• Easy application and tracking of off-in-lieu requests’ status
• Real-time notifications of off-in-lieu requests
• Multi-tiered approval system to reflect your company policies
• Approve off-in-lieu requests while on-the-go via Mobile App
• Delivers complete annual or monthly review of your employees’ off-in-lieu requests
• Generates leave reports in an analytical graph or on spreadsheets
• Include additional holidays or off days that are unique to your company
• Regularly updated to the latest changes on public holidays and other regulations