AUXILIARY UPDATE : 07 december 2016

Minimum payment for Christmas and New Year public holidays

I wish to remind all members that as part of the efforts to obtain an award to cover all auxiliary firefighters in Queensland, your union fought for and won a minimum payment of four hours for auxiliaries who work on public holidays.

This provision is included in the Auxiliary Firefighters’ Award – State 2016, which commenced on 1 January 2016.

Relevantly, the Holidays Act – Queensland 1983 provides for an ‘additional’ public holiday when Christmas Day, Boxing Day and/or New Year’s Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday.

Accordingly, the public holiday dates for the Christmas and New Year period for 2016/2017 are as follows –

Christmas Day
Sunday, 25 December 2016

Additional Public Holiday
Tuesday, 27 December 2016

Boxing Day
Monday, 26 December 2016

New Year’s Day
Sunday, 1 January 2017

Additional Public Holiday
Monday, 2 January 2017

This means the four hour minimum payment applies to all auxiliaries who attended any call-outs on each of the dates listed above.

If you have concerns about filling in your time sheet and making sure you are paid the four hour minimum on either of those dates please ensure you raise the issue with your local QFES HR/Payroll contact.