The Christmas closedown is designed to encourage all appropriate areas of public sector agencies not involved in the delivery of front line services to shut down for two weeks over the Christmas/ New Year period. State Owned Corporations are also encouraged to maximise the taking of recreation leave by staff wherever possible.

CLOSEDOWN DATES

The two week closedown period for 2009-10 is from Friday 25 December 2009 to Friday 8 January 2010 inclusive.

As well as enabling employees to enjoy valuable time off with family and friends over the peak holiday period, the closedown is an important part of the NSW Governments strategy to reduce recreation leave and accrued work time liabilities throughout the public sector.

• Staff not involved in the delivery of necessary services should be encouraged to take full advantage of this closedown period and managers should also be encouraged to release staff wherever possible and appropriate. Frontline services are not to be shut down.
• Closedown arrangements will vary between agencies and the decision as to which areas are appropriate to be closed down, and the extent of that closedown, is to be made on a case by case basis by the agencys Chief Executive Officer (CEO). It may, for example, involve all or sections of an agency being closed down, including partial closedown of a section (i.e. skeleton staffing).
• Agencies should also consider utilising temporary assignment provisions to assign staff not on leave to areas where work is continuing during the closedown period.
• CEOs should ensure managers hold discussions with employees prior to the implementation of these arrangements and provide as much notice as possible (at least one month or on their first day of work if they have been employed for less than a month prior to Christmas).
• Subject to operational requirements and the relevant industrial instruments, agencies should direct employees with excessive leave balances onto leave during the closedown period.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

The Christmas and New Year public holidays for New South Wales during the closedown period are:

• Friday 25 December 2009 Christmas Day
• Monday 28 December 2009 Boxing Day
• Friday 1 January 2010 New Years Day

As Boxing Day falls on a Saturday in 2009, the following Monday 28 December 2009 has been gazetted as the Boxing Day public holiday for NSW.

PUBLIC SERVICE DEPARTMENTS:

The following provisions apply to public service Departments only.

Concessional Leave:

Subject to industrial instruments, departmental operational and staffing requirements, concessional leave will be available to eligible public service employees for on the afternoon of 24 December 2009.

To be eligible for the leave, employees must be on duty that morning and must work half the standard full time daily hours for the employees category of employment. Eligible employees who are directed to remain on duty for the full day on Christmas Eve are entitled to a half-days concessional leave on New Years Eve.

Provisions for granting and taking of concessional leave are set out in Part 6.6 of the Personnel Handbook.

Public Service Holiday:

In addition to the public holidays observed in NSW, public service employees, who are not entitled to a union picnic day or some other special day (such as the Tuesday after Easter or local holidays), are entitled to a public service holiday.  This holiday is to be taken during the period between Boxing Day and New Year's Day and is subject to provisions in enterprise arrangements.

Department Heads, in accordance with clause 19.1.3 of the Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment) Award 2009 (the Award), are to determine which day will be observed as the public service holiday in their Department.

Employees directed to work on the day determined by their Department as the public service holiday are entitled to be absent from duty on one of the other working days between Boxing Day and New Years Day without loss of pay.

Unless otherwise provided for in enterprise arrangements:

• Employees directed to work on all of the working days between Boxing Day and New Years Day are entitled to be paid overtime at the public holiday rate for work performed on the day determined as the public service holiday for their agency.
• Shift workers (as defined in the Award) are to receive the public holiday provisions set out in Clause 89 of the Award for the day observed as the public service holiday in their agency.
• Part time employees are entitled to be absent on the public service holiday and receive ordinary pay if they would normally have worked on that day. Those who do not normally work on that day are not entitled to compensation.

Nathan Rees MP
Premier