Posted April 2, 2019
This year really is the year for difficult public holidays. First, we had Australia Day which fell funny for salon owners, and now ANZAC Day and the Easter Holidays fall quite close to each other, sure to create a headache for most salon owners.
In 2019, the Easter Public Holidays are as follows –
GOOD FRIDAY | Friday 19 April | ALL STATES |
EASTER SATURDAY | Saturday 20 April | NSW, VIC, QLD, NT, SA, ACT |
EASTER SUNDAY | Sunday 21 April | NSW, VIC, QLD, ACT |
EASTER MONDAY | Monday 22 April | ALL STATES |
*please look out for public holiday notices in your emails as HABA will be sending them out this week.
PLUS We have the ANZAC Day Public Holiday on the 25th of April. That’s alot going on if you’re a salon owner!
What you will find because of the way that the dates have fallen is you might get your staff coming to you and asking for a number of dates off – probably any combination of the 23rd, 24th, 26th and 27th of April – so that they get a total of 10 days leave. We have heard from our members that this is pretty common when a couple of public holidays fall in close to each other as it gives staff the impression that they can maximise their holiday time.
For salon owners, it’s important to have the conversation with your team early about what you do and do not determine to be acceptable during this period. If you are only accepting already-booked annual leave applications, it’s important that you tell your staff this. If you’re opening on Easter Saturday, it’s important to share this with your team. An option for salon owners, if you don’t believe the day is worth trading on, is to simply close the salon for the day – many people go away for the Easter Break, and with the stacking of public holidays you may find appointments are significantly lower than usual as families escape for the longer period.
HABA recommend to salon owners that they plan out their staff rosters in the first week of April (THIS WEEK!) for this period. Come to your staff meeting with a list of anyone who has already applied for annual leave and inform the team that ask the rest of your team whether or not they will be taking time off. It might be that they cannot take time off as they will be necessary to run the business – and that is an ok expectation for salon owners to have. Remember, an employee may have the right to refuse to work if they can establish reasonable grounds such as family responsibilities or a short notice period.
If you’re concerned about appointments on the dates between Easter and ANZAC Day, remember that you can send an employee home early if it is quiet or if they do not have any bookings – but the question which you should probably be asking is whether or not this employee goes home with or without pay.
Full or part-time employees are guaranteed hours, as set out in their contract. They are viewed to be permanent staff members. Therefore, you cannot send your employee home without pay, even if they do not have any bookings, nor if it is quiet in the afternoon. If you do send your employee home, you should know that you should be paying them for the remainder of their shift to ensure they have been paid for their guaranteed hours per week.
The key is to communicate your team early about what you expect of them and what the operating situation will be on the day. It’s also key to plan your appointments for this period, which we will talk about next week. We encourage you to speak to your team as soon as possible about the public holiday to ensure that there is no confusion or misunderstanding. Members who are unsure how the public holiday will affect them should call Hair and Beauty Australia on 02 9221 9911.
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