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annual holidays
general entitlements
moving to four weeks leave
records employers must keep
calculating weekly pay/earning
employees who take holidays in advance
pay-as-you-go
entitlements on resignation or termination
regular annual closedowns
effects of unpaid leave
employees with changing work pattern
interface with other leave
public holidays
NZ public holiday dates
sick & bereavement leave
transition from 1981 Act to 2003 Act
Implementation evaluation of Holidays Act 2003
before 1 Apr 2004:
holidays act 1981

regular annual closedowns

 
 
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The method of calculating the annual holiday entitlement is different where the employer chooses to instigate an annual closedown on a regular basis.

This closedown can occur either:

  • across the entire workplace (for example, where a company closes over the Christmas/New Year period), or
  • for part of an enterprise (for example, where the factory closes for maintenance while the office, dispatch and sales departments remain open).

The employer may implement such a closure once a year and require employees to take leave during the period of the closedown, even where this requires employees to take leave for which they are not fully reimbursed.

The employer is required to provide employees at least 14 days' advance notice of the closedown.

For employees in their first year of employment, the level of annual holiday pay for the period of the closedown can be established by:

If you are looking for guidance, call the Department of Labour freephone on 0800 20 90 20 during normal business hours.

For all employees whose work is subject to a regular annual closedown, the employer can nominate a date which will be treated as the date that the closedown begins on and on which the employees become entitled to annual holidays. This date must be reasonably connected to the timing of the regular annual closedown. For example, where there is a Christmas closedown the date could be set at 15 December to ensure that it always comes before the annual closedown commences.

An employer who wants to shut down their operations more than once in any year can do so with the agreement of their employee or employees, but cannot direct them to take annual holidays utilising the above provisions. Nor is the date of entitlement to annual holiday adjusted by a second closedown.

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This page was last updated on: 29-Mar-2007 and is current.


general entitlements | moving to four weeks | records employers must keep | calculating weekly pay | taking holidays in advance of entitlement | pay-as-you-go provisions | entitlements on resignation or termination | annual closedowns | unpaid leave | changing work pattern | interface with other leave

annual holidays | how to calculate holiday pay | special leave | public (statutory) holidays | NZ public holiday dates | FAQs

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