Public Holiday Pay Rules — Restaurant Award (MA000119)

In Simple TermsUnder the Restaurant Award (MA000119), public holiday work must be paid at 225% for permanent employees and 250% for casuals, with a 4-hour minimum engagement for permanents and 2 hours for casuals. A substitute arrangement can reduce the rate to 125% plus a paid day off — but only if agreed in writing before the work is performed.

Restaurant Award Public Holiday Penalty Rates 2026

Clause 24.2(c) of MA000119 (Table 8 — Penalty rates) sets the public holiday rate. The casual rate is all-inclusive — the 25% casual loading is built into the 250% figure, not stacked on top.

Worked example using the 2025-26 Level 4 standard rate of $28.12/hr (effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2025 per PR786658):

• Full-time Level 4 cook working an 8-hour public holiday shift: 8 × ($28.12 × 2.25) = $506.16 (225% rate covers all hours worked — the NES paid absence does not also apply because the employee was required to work)
• Casual Level 4 cook working an 8-hour public holiday shift: 8 × ($28.12 × 2.50) = $562.40

For full pay rate detail across all classification levels, see the 2026 Restaurant Award rates guide.

Minimum Engagement on Public Holidays

Under clause 24.4 of MA000119, a full-time or part-time employee who works on a public holiday must be paid for a minimum of 4 hours, even if they actually work less. This is a structural protection against being called in for a 90-minute pre-service shift on a public holiday and walking away with under $100 of penalty pay.

The casual minimum engagement under clause 11.3 is 2 consecutive hours. Public holidays do not extend the casual minimum — a casual called in for 90 minutes on Christmas Day must still be paid for 2 hours at the 250% rate.

The National Employment Standards Paid Day Off

Under sections 114 and 116 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), the National Employment Standards entitle a full-time or part-time employee to a paid day off on a public holiday (paid at the employee’s base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked). This is separate from the Award penalty rate for hours actually worked.

The interaction works like this:

• Permanent rostered to work and works the public holiday: 225% rate for hours worked (Award)
• Permanent rostered to work but does not work (employer agrees not to require attendance): base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked (NES s116). No Award penalty applies because no hours were worked
• Permanent not rostered to work: no payment under the NES. Section 116 only applies where the employee would otherwise have worked ordinary hours
• Casual works the public holiday: 250% rate for hours worked. No NES paid day off (casuals are excluded from s116)
• Casual does not work: nothing. The NES does not provide a paid day off for casuals

The Substitute-Day Option — Clause 24.4

Clause 24.4(d) of MA000119 allows an employer and employee to agree in writing on an alternative to the 225% public holiday rate. Under the substitute arrangement, the employee is paid:

1. 125% of the minimum hourly rate for hours worked on the public holiday (instead of 225%), and
2. Either equivalent paid time added to annual leave, or a paid day off taken within 28 days of the public holiday

The substitute arrangement must be in writing. It is voluntary — the employee cannot be required to accept it. The employee cannot retroactively elect into a substitute arrangement after the fact.

Worked example: A Level 4 full-time cook 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 annual leave, OR a paid day off within 28 days

Compared to the standard 225% arrangement (8 × $28.12 × 2.25 = $506.16), the substitute saves $224.96 in cash that day — but creates an annual leave or rostering liability of equivalent value. Whether it’s genuinely cheaper depends on whether the substitute day is later worked at penalty rates or replaces ordinary hours.

Christmas Day on a Weekend — The Special Rule

Clause 24.4 of MA000119 contains a specific rule for Christmas Day when it falls on a Saturday or Sunday. In those years (2027 will be the next one — Christmas Day is a Saturday), the actual public holiday is typically observed on the following Monday or Tuesday under State and Territory legislation.

For an employee other than a casual who works on the actual Christmas Day (the Saturday or Sunday) when it is not the gazetted public holiday:

• The employee is paid an additional loading of 50% of their ordinary time rate for the hours worked on Christmas Day
• This is on top of the Saturday or Sunday penalty rate that would otherwise apply (125% for Saturday or 150% for Sunday)
• The employee is also entitled to the benefit of the substitute public holiday on the gazetted day

So a full-time Level 4 cook who works 8 hours on Saturday 25 December 2027 receives: Saturday rate (125%) + additional Christmas loading (50%) = effectively 175% of the ordinary rate for that day, plus the benefit of the Monday public holiday.

Full-Time RDO Falls on a Public Holiday

When a full-time employee’s rostered day off (RDO) falls on a public holiday, MA000119 provides additional public holiday arrangements for full-time employees. The general framework: the employee may elect either an extra day’s pay at the employee’s ordinary rate, or equivalent time accrued to annual leave (one day added to the annual leave balance).

This rule prevents a full-time employee from missing out on the public holiday benefit just because their RDO happened to fall on the same day. The election is the employee’s, not the employer’s, and should be recorded in the time and wages records. Refer to the public holidays section of the current MA000119 for the precise wording applicable to your workforce.

Public Holidays in Australia — What Counts

The public holidays that trigger MA000119 clause 24.2(c) and 24.4 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. Each State and Territory then adds its own (Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, King’s Birthday, Labour Day, regional show days, etc.).

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 (such as the part-day Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve declared in some States) trigger the Award rate only for the hours that fall within the declared part-day period. Schedule F of MA000119 deals with part-day public holiday treatment.

Reasonable Refusal to Work a Public Holiday

Under section 114(2) of the Fair Work Act, an employee may refuse to work a public holiday if the request is unreasonable, or if the refusal is reasonable. Section 114(4) lists the factors:

• 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

Following the Federal Court’s decision in CFMMEU v OS MCAP Pty Ltd, employers must request public holiday work, not require it. A roster that simply schedules a permanent staff member for a public holiday without a request, and without an opportunity for the employee to refuse, may not satisfy section 114.

Common Public Holiday Mistakes in Restaurants

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 a single missed public holiday rate replicated across multiple staff over multiple holidays compounds quickly. See what happens if you underpay restaurant staff for the civil penalty and criminal wage theft framework.

• Paying the casual rate as 25% loading + 225% penalty — the casual public holiday rate of 250% is all-inclusive. Stacking the loading separately is double-counting
• Forgetting the 4-hour minimum engagement for permanents — calling a part-timer in for a 2-hour Christmas Day brunch service still costs 4 hours of pay at 225%
• Substitute arrangement made verbally or after the fact — clause 24.4(d) requires written agreement before the work, not a retrospective election after a public holiday cost-blow-out
• Missing the Christmas-weekend additional 50% loading — a permanent working actual Christmas Day when it falls on a Saturday or Sunday (and the public holiday is observed elsewhere) gets weekend rate plus 50%, not just the weekend rate
• Treating part-day public holidays as full days — the Award rate only applies to the declared part-day period, not the full shift
• Rostering rather than requesting — section 114 requires a request and a real opportunity to refuse. Auto-rostering permanents on public holidays without a request creates exposure under the OS MCAP principle
• Stacking the public holiday rate on top of overtime — if a permanent works overtime hours on a public holiday, clause 23.4 Table 7 sets the applicable overtime rate for that work (typically 250% for public holiday overtime). The 225% public holiday penalty rate and the overtime rate do not stack; the applicable overtime rate under Table 7 governs the overtime hours. Always check the Table 7 figure for the precise overtime time-and-day combination

One incorrectly paid public holiday across a 10-person roster, repeated across 7 national public holidays a year, can become thousands of dollars of back-pay over a single year. The cost compounds before anyone notices.

Related Restaurant Award Guides

Frequently Asked Questions

Public holiday rosters are where small mistakes become large invoices. Confirm your rates, your minimum engagements, and your substitute-day arrangements before the long weekend — not after.