What's covered in this guide?
📝 Important to note: Not all organisations use a dedicated Public Holiday leave type. Depending on your organisation's policies, public holidays may be managed through annual leave entitlements, or other payroll processes. Only follow this guide if you intend to use the Public Holiday (Paid/Not Worked) leave type.
Set public holiday regions for your locations
Workforce determines which public holidays apply to employees based on the holiday region configured on their location.
📝 Important to note: Public holidays will only be applied correctly if the appropriate holiday region has been configured for each location.
To set a holiday region for a location:
Navigate to Workforce > Locations.
Click Edit next to the relevant location.
Expand Advanced Options.
Under Holiday Regions, search for and select the appropriate region.
Click Update location details.
Restrict Public Holiday (Paid/Not Worked) leave to eligible employees
By default, the Public Holiday (Paid/Not Worked) leave type applies to all employees. Most organisations will only want this leave type to apply to permanent employees (full-time and part-time).
To restrict the leave type:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Compliance > Manage Leave Types.
Click Edit next to Public Holiday (Paid/Not Worked).
Change Leave applies to from All staff to Categorised staff (based on award tags).
Select the relevant tags.
Click Update leave type.
📝 Important to note: Only employees matching the selected tags will be eligible for automatically generated Public Holiday leave requests.
Automatically create and approve Public Holiday leave
You can configure Public Holiday leave to be automatically created and approved for eligible employees, removing the need to manually create and approve leave requests for each public holiday.
To enable automatic Public Holiday leave:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Compliance > Manage Leave Types.
Click Edit next to Public Holiday (Paid/Not Worked).
Under Leave applies on, tick Automatically apply this leave type on public holidays.
(Optional) Tick Applies on specific holidays if you only want the leave type to apply to selected public holidays.
Under Advanced Settings:
Tick Automatically approve this type of leave request.
Recommended: Tick Prevent leave requests for this leave type to avoid manual requests conflicting with automatically generated leave.
Click Update leave type.
How automatic Public Holiday leave works
When configured, Workforce automatically creates and approves a leave request for each eligible employee at 11:00 PM on the public holiday.
A leave request won't be created if:
The employee clocked in or out on the public holiday.
The leave type does not apply to the employee.
Automatic Public Holiday leave has not been configured.
The duration of the leave request is determined by the employee's leave autofill settings, configured under Settings > All Settings > Leave.
For example, if a part-time employee normally works 9:00 AM–12:00 PM on Fridays, they will receive a 3-hour leave request when a Friday public holiday occurs.
💡 Tip: Review your leave autofill settings before upcoming public holidays to ensure employees receive the correct leave duration.
For more information, see Autofill leave requests with correct hours for each employee.
FAQs
Do I need to use a Public Holiday leave type?
Do I need to use a Public Holiday leave type?
No. This guide only applies to organisations using the Public Holiday (Paid/Not Worked) leave type to manage paid public holiday absences. Some organisations may manage public holiday entitlements through award interpretation and pay conditions instead.
Why wasn't a Public Holiday leave request created for an employee?
Why wasn't a Public Holiday leave request created for an employee?
A leave request will not be created if:
The employee clocked in or out on the public holiday.
The leave type does not apply to the employee.
Automatic Public Holiday leave has not been configured.
Can I limit automatic leave to specific public holidays?
Can I limit automatic leave to specific public holidays?
Yes. Enable Applies on specific holidays within the leave type settings and select the public holidays you want the leave type to apply to.
How are the leave hours calculated?
How are the leave hours calculated?
Leave hours are calculated using the employee's leave autofill settings found under Settings > All Settings > Leave.