AUXILIARY UPDATE : 09 october 2019

Calculation of payment for public holiday work

I am pleased to advise you that the UFUQ has won our dispute with QFES regarding the interpretation of clauses 22 and 24 of the Award relating to payment for public holiday work.

In their decision, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission agreed with the union, ruling that the minimum entitlement of 4 hours payment for the day operates alongside the ordinary 2-hour engagement period for each call-in.

In doing so, the QIRC rejected QFES’s argument that the 4-hour payment overrode or “bought out” the 2-hour payment.

This means that, for work that you perform on a public holiday, you should receive the following:

1. A minimum of four hours’ pay at the public holiday rate (double time and half), regardless of time actually worked. The four hours’ payment commences when you start work on the day, and buys out any work performed during that 4-hour period.

2. All other call in work performed after that 4-hour block is remunerated at the same public holiday penalty rate, for a minimum of 2 hours for each call in.

For example, if you were called in at 1000h on the Queen’s Birthday public holiday for 30 minutes, and then again at 1200h for 1 hour, and again at 1600h for 15 minutes, you would claim the following:

4 hours at double time and a half (for the work performed within the four-hour block between 10am and 2pm)

AND

2 hours at double time and a half (for the call in at 4pm).

You can read the decision here.

 

John Oliver - General Secretary

Authorised by John Oliver General Secretary 
United Firefighters' Union of Australia, Union of Employees QLD