Working on the Labour Day public holiday?
The Labour Day public holiday in Victoria falls on Monday 10 March 2025.
If you are a permanent employee under the current public sector enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) and you work on the day, you are entitled to be paid 200 per cent for time worked, which is double time.
If you are a casual employee, you are entitled to be paid 250% per cent, which is double time and a half.
If you work in the private sector, check the ‘public holiday’ clause in your EBA. You can check your EBA via the member portal.
Other upcoming public holidays
- Good Friday: Friday 18 April
- Easter Saturday: Saturday 19 April
- Easter Sunday: Sunday 20 April
- Easter Monday: Monday 21 April
- Anzac day: Friday 25 April
- King’s Birthday: Monday 9 June
I’m a part-timer who works both weekdays and weekends, but I’m not working on the public holiday. What should I get paid?
If your unit is closed because of the public holiday, you are entitled to the day off, with pay.
If the public holiday falls on your day off, you are entitled to the pro-rata payment equivalent of a full-time employee.
This is calculated by determining what fraction of 38 hours you usually work (let’s say 0.8 EFT) and multiplying a day’s pay by 0.8. If you normally work an 8-hour shift, 0.8 of an 8-hour shift is 6.4 hours.
So, you would receive 6.4 hours pay even though it was your day off.
What if I’m recalled to duty?
If you are recalled to duty, all payment for that recall is in addition to any ‘rostered off’ public holiday benefit.
Working when daylight saving ends?
Victorians will gain an hour when the clock moves backwards – from 3am to 2am – on Sunday 6 April 2025. If you are working during the transition back to Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) your pay will depend on the EBA that applies to your workplace.
Victorian public sector nurses and midwives, most private acute and aged care nurses and personal care workers must be paid for the actual hours worked during the affected shift at your ordinary rate of pay. For example:
You are rostered to work a ten-hour night shift from 9pm through to 7.30am (including a 30-minute meal break). During the course of your shift, the clock is wound back one hour due to the cessation of daylight saving.
You have therefore worked 11 hours. You must be paid 11 hours at your ordinary time rate of pay (including any shift penalties or allowances ordinarily payable in respect of this shift). No overtime is paid for the additional hour worked.
If you work in the private sector, you can confirm daylight saving entitlements via your EBA through the member portal.
What if I live near the border and work in NSW?
If you live near the border but are working under a NSW EBA at the time, be aware that NSW EBAs generally stipulate that employees are paid according to the start and finish times that appear on the clock instead of the hours actually worked.
Of course, you should always check your EBA as there may be differences between the public and private sector.
But in many cases, if you are on shift in NSW when daylight saving ends, you will be paid one hour less than you actually worked.
Conversely, if you are on shift in NSW when daylight saving begins, you will be paid for one hour more than you actually worked.
But because employers cannot guarantee they will roster the same staff on for shifts when daylight saving both ends and begins, Victorian public sector nurses negotiated for change. And because the public sector EBA is the benchmark against which ANMF negotiates other EBAs, many of these followed suit.
