Public Holiday Pay Rules — Hospitality Award (MA000009)

In Simple TermsUnder the Hospitality Industry (General) Award MA000009, public holiday work must be paid at 250% for full-time and part-time employees and 275% for casuals (the casual rate is all-inclusive). Full-time and part-time employees are entitled to base rate pay under the NES (s116) only where they are absent from work on a public holiday but would otherwise have worked ordinary hours — the Award penalty and the NES paid absence operate alternatively, not cumulatively.

Hospitality Award Public Holiday Penalty Rates 2026

Clause 29.2 of MA000009 (Table 14 — Penalty rates) sets the public holiday rate. The casual rate is all-inclusive — the 25% casual loading is built into the 275% figure, not stacked separately.

Worked example: A Level 4 (Cook grade 3 / tradesperson) full-time employee working an 8-hour shift on Anzac Day. Using the 1 July 2025 minimum hourly rate of $28.12 for Level 4:

• Full-time: 8 × ($28.12 × 2.50) = $562.40
• Casual: 8 × ($28.12 × 2.75) = $618.64

For full pay rate detail across all classification levels, see the Hospitality Award rates guide on the pillar page.

Hospitality vs Restaurant Award — The Public Holiday Gap

This is the single biggest day-rate difference between the two main hospitality Awards in Australia, and it matters because misclassifying which Award covers your venue is a common compliance failure.

If your venue is a pub, hotel, motel, or licensed bar, MA000009 is the correct Award. If it’s a cafe, restaurant, or bistro, MA000119 applies. Coverage depends on the principal business of the venue, not the role of the individual employee. See the full Hospitality vs Restaurant Award comparison if you’re unsure which applies.

The National Employment Standards Paid Day Off

Sections 114 to 116 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) establish the National Employment Standards public holiday entitlements. These apply on top of the Award penalty rates — not instead of them.

• Section 114 — Right not to work on a public holiday: An employee may refuse a request to work on a public holiday if the request is unreasonable, or if the refusal is reasonable
• Section 115 — What is a public holiday: The days declared as public holidays by the Commonwealth, State, or Territory legislation, or substituted public holidays
• Section 116 — Payment for absence on a public holiday: A full-time or part-time employee who is absent from work on a public holiday is entitled to payment at their base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked. Casuals are excluded

How this interacts with the MA000009 Award rate — the Award penalty (for hours worked) and the NES s116 paid absence (for hours not worked) operate alternatively, not cumulatively:

• Permanent rostered to work and works: 250% rate for hours worked (Award)
• Permanent rostered to work but does not work: base rate for ordinary hours they would have worked (NES s116)
• Permanent not rostered to work: no payment under the NES — s116 only applies where the employee would otherwise have worked ordinary hours
• Casual works the public holiday: 275% rate for hours worked. No NES paid day off
• Casual does not work: nothing — casuals are excluded from the s116 paid day off

The Substitute-Day Option

MA000009 allows an employer and a full-time employee to agree in writing on an alternative arrangement: pay at 125% of the minimum hourly rate for hours worked on the public holiday, with equivalent time accrued as paid annual leave.

Worked example: A full-time Level 4 employee works an 8-hour shift on Easter Monday under a written substitute arrangement.

• Cash payment: 8 × ($28.12 × 1.25) = $281.20
• Plus 8 hours added to the annual leave balance

Compared to the standard 250% arrangement (8 × $28.12 × 2.50 = $562.40), the substitute saves $281.20 in cash that day — but creates an annual leave liability of equivalent value. The arrangement must be voluntary and in writing — the employee cannot be required to accept it.

Reasonable Refusal — The OS MCAP Rule

The Federal Court’s decision in CFMMEU v OS MCAP Pty Ltd reset how section 114 is applied. Under that decision, employers must ensure public holiday work is genuinely requested and that employees have a real opportunity to refuse in accordance with section 114. Simply scheduling an employee for a public holiday in the roster, without an explicit request and without giving the employee a genuine opportunity to consider and respond, may not satisfy section 114 — even if the employee turns up and works.

Section 114(4) sets out the factors relevant to whether a request is reasonable or a refusal is reasonable:

• The nature of the workplace (including its operational requirements) and the nature of the work performed by the employee
• The employee’s personal circumstances (including family responsibilities)
• Whether the employee could reasonably expect that the employer might request work on the public holiday
• Whether the employee is entitled to receive overtime payments, penalty rates, or other compensation, or a level of remuneration that reflects an expectation of public holiday work
• The type of employment (full-time, part-time, casual, or shiftworker)
• The amount of notice in advance of the public holiday given by the employer when making the request
• The amount of notice given by the employee in refusing the request
• Any other relevant matter

For pubs and hotels — venues that almost always trade on public holidays — the request is usually reasonable. But the request itself must still be made. A pre-published roster covering Anzac Day with named employees but no explicit request is the kind of arrangement that sat at the centre of OS MCAP.

Public Holidays in Australia — What Counts

The public holidays that trigger MA000009 clause 29.2 are those declared under section 115 of the Fair Work Act and the relevant State or Territory legislation. National public holidays are: New Year’s Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.

State and Territory public holidays in 2026 vary considerably. NSW operators trading at multiple sites in different States need to apply each State’s public holiday calendar to the venue in that State, not the head office State. A pub in Brisbane and a bar in Perth covered by the same employer apply Queensland and WA public holiday calendars respectively.

Substituted public holidays count. If a State substitutes the actual day for a different day (for example, when a national public holiday falls on a weekend), the substituted day is the public holiday for Award purposes.

Part-day public holidays (Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in some States, after specified hours) trigger the Award rate only for hours that fall within the declared part-day period. Schedule H of MA000009 deals with part-day public holiday treatment.

Casino Gaming Stream — Important Exception

MA000009 includes a Casino Gaming stream in Schedule A. Casino employees may be subject to different penalty rate structures and additional public holiday provisions specific to that stream. If your venue is a licensed casino, the standard 250%/275% public holiday rates above may not be the only relevant figures — casino-specific rates and provisions in Schedule A take priority for affected classifications. Casino operators should refer directly to Schedule A and the casino-specific minimum rates and operational provisions in the current MA000009 rather than rely on the general framework summarised here.

Common Public Holiday Mistakes in Pubs & Hotels

Incorrect public holiday payments are one of the most common sources of underpayment claims in hospitality. The Fair Work Ombudsman investigates underpayments under section 682 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), and pub/hotel public holidays attract higher rates than restaurants — meaning the same percentage error costs more per shift. See how to calculate back-pay for underpaid staff and Fair Work fines for hospitality for the remediation framework and penalty exposure.

• Paying the casual rate as 25% loading + 250% penalty — the casual public holiday rate of 275% is all-inclusive. Stacking the loading separately is double-counting
• Treating the 250% Award rate and the NES s116 paid absence as cumulative — they operate alternatively. The 250% applies for hours worked on the public holiday. The NES s116 paid absence at base rate applies for ordinary hours the permanent employee would have worked but was not required to. An employee who works the public holiday is paid 250% for those hours; an employee not required to work receives the s116 base rate. Stacking them is double-dipping
• Substitute arrangement made verbally or after the fact — the substitute arrangement requires written agreement before the work, not a retrospective election after a public holiday cost-blow-out
• Auto-rostering permanents on public holidays without a request — following CFMMEU v OS MCAP Pty Ltd, this practice may not satisfy section 114. The request must be explicit and the employee must have a real opportunity to refuse
• Treating part-day public holidays as full days — the Award rate only applies to the declared part-day period (typically 7pm to midnight on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in States that have declared them)
• Applying head-office State public holidays to interstate venues — a Sydney-based group running a Perth pub applies WA public holidays to that pub, not NSW public holidays
• Stacking the public holiday rate on top of overtime — if a permanent works overtime hours on a public holiday, the applicable overtime rate under the Award’s overtime provisions governs those hours (typically a higher rate that already accounts for the public holiday). The 250% public holiday penalty rate and the overtime rate do not stack; the higher applicable rate applies to the overtime hours. Always check the precise overtime figure for the time-and-day combination

One incorrectly paid public holiday across a 15-person pub roster, repeated across 7 national public holidays a year, becomes meaningful back-pay before anyone notices — and Hospitality Award rates are higher than Restaurant Award rates, so each error costs more.

Related Hospitality Award Guides

Frequently Asked Questions

A public holiday roster mistake in a pub or hotel costs more than in a cafe — the rates are higher and the volumes are bigger. Confirm your rates, your requests, and your substitute arrangements before the long weekend.