Bank Holiday Entitlement on New Year’s Eve

Bulletin 55, 2016 –

To: All NSW Trains RTBU Members,

After discussions with Sydney Trains in relation to the application of the Bank Holiday arrangements for this year the RTBU held discussions with NSW Trains to seek their position on this matter.

It is an entitlement under your Enterprise Agreement that in addition to the NSW nominated Public Holidays you also get an extra day in lieu of a Bank Holiday without loss of pay.  The Enterprise Agreement specifies that this extra day is taken on New Year’s Eve.

But what happens this year when New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday (and many of our members don’t normally work on a Saturday)?

As a result of the discussions with NSW Trains Management and information provided, NSW Trains’ position is as follows:

The entitlement to take New Year’s Eve as a holiday in lieu of the Bank Holiday has been a longstanding EA entitlement for NSW Trains employees.  As New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday, the day in lieu will be Saturday 31^st December 2016.

For employees who ordinarily work Monday to Friday only, Friday 30^th December 2016 will be recognised in substitute.

NSW Trains has offered as a discretionary benefit to Monday to Friday workers that are required to work on Friday 30^th December 2016 that the usual conditions for working on a Public Holiday will apply.

As such any member who is a Monday to Friday worker and is required to work on Friday, 30^th December 2016 can now be paid and/or accrue the day in accordance with clause 28.5 of the NSW Trains Enterprise Agreement 2014 for working a Public Holiday.

For seven-day shift workers who usually work weekends, Saturday, 31^st December 2016 will remain as the day in lieu of the Bank Holiday (as is historically the case) and the proper public holiday penalty payment and time accrual arrangements will apply.

Without the action of one of our RTBU delegates the office would not have known there was an issue that needed to be fixed.  This Christmas we should all give our RTBU delegates a big extra ‘Thank You’ for the hard work they do on our behalf.