Employment Act 1968 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 10 · Holiday, Annual Leave and Sick Leave Entitlements
88. Holidays
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Every employee gets a paid holiday on each public holiday. A public holiday on a rest day moves to the next working day. Missing the working day before or after it without consent or good reason means no holiday pay. An employee required to work on a public holiday usually gets an extra day's basic pay plus the gross rate.
Summary · Drafted with AI, checked against the official text on 30 Sep 2026.
Last amended by an amending law of 2018. 3 amendments in all.
Every employee is entitled to a paid holiday at his or her gross rate of pay on a public holiday that falls during the time that he or she is employed, subject to the following:
employee
“employee” means a person who has entered into or works under a contract of service with an employer and includes a workman, and any officer or employee of the Government included in a category, class or description of such officers or employees declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act or any provision thereof, but does not include any of the following:(a)any seafarer;(b)any domestic worker;(c) (d)any person belonging to any other class of persons whom the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare not to be employees for the purposes of this Act;
by agreement between the employer and the employee any other day or days may be substituted for any one or more public holidays;
if any public holiday falls on a rest day, the working day next following that rest day is a paid holiday;
if any public holiday falls on a day when the employee is not required to work under his or her contract of service, the employer may either pay the employee for that holiday at his or her gross rate of pay or give the employee a day off in substitution for that holiday.
Despite subsection (1), an employee is not entitled to holiday pay for any public holiday which falls on a day when the employee is on leave of absence without pay granted by the employer at the employee’s request.
An employee who absents himself or herself from work on the working day immediately preceding or immediately succeeding a public holiday or any day substituted therefor under subsection (1) without the prior consent of his or her employer or without reasonable excuse is not entitled to any holiday pay for that holiday.
employer
“employer” means any person who employs another person under a contract of service and includes —(a)the Government in respect of such categories, classes or descriptions of officers or employees of the Government as are declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act;(b)any statutory authority;(c)the duly authorised agent or manager of the employer; and(d)the person who owns or is carrying on or for the time being responsible for the management of the profession, business, trade or work in which the employee is engaged;
Despite subsection (1), any employee may be required by his or her employer to work on any public holiday to which the employee would otherwise be entitled under that subsection and, in such event, the employee must be paid an extra day’s salary at the basic rate of pay for one day’s work in addition to the gross rate of pay for that day and to a travelling allowance, if payable to the employee under the terms of his or her agreement with his or her employer, for one day.
salary
“salary” means all remuneration including allowances payable to an employee in respect of work done under his or her contract of service, but does not include —(a)the value of any house accommodation, supply of electricity, water, medical attendance, or other amenity, or of any service excluded by general or special order of the Minister published in the Gazette;(b)any contribution paid by the employer on his or her own account to any pension fund or provident fund;(c)any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession;(d)any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him or her for special expenses incurred by him or her in the course of his or her employment;(e)any gratuity payable on discharge or retirement; and(f)any retrenchment benefit payable on retrenchment;
Despite subsections (1) and (4), where any employee (other than an employee to whom Part 4 applies by virtue of section 35(b) or who is a workman mentioned in section 35(a)) is required by his or her employer to work on any public holiday to which the employee would otherwise be entitled under subsection (1), the employee must be paid the gross rate of pay for that day and may be given the following, in lieu of a day off in substitution for that holiday or an extra day’s salary at the basic rate of pay:
workman
“workman” means —(a)any person, skilled or unskilled, who has entered into a contract of service with an employer pursuant to which he or she is engaged in manual labour, including any artisan or apprentice, but excluding any seafarer or domestic worker;(b)any person, other than clerical staff, employed in the operation or maintenance of mechanically‑propelled vehicles used for the transport of passengers for hire or for commercial purposes;(c)any person employed partly for manual labour and partly for the purpose of supervising in person any workman in and throughout the performance of his or her work:Provided that when any person is employed by any one employer partly as a workman and partly in some other capacity or capacities, that person is deemed to be a workman unless it can be established that the time during which that workman has been required to work as a workman in any one salary period as defined in Part 3 has on no occasion amounted to or exceeded one‑half of the total time during which that person has been required to work in such salary period;(d)any person specified in the First Schedule; or(e)any person whom the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare to be a workman for the purposes of this Act.
part of a day off on a working day comprising such number of hours as may be agreed between the employee and his or her employer;
in the case where there is no such agreement —
part of a day off on a working day comprising 4 hours if the employee worked on that holiday for a period not exceeding 4 hours; or
a day off on a working day if the employee worked on that holiday for a period of more than 4 hours.
An employee is not entitled, by reason of subsection (4), to receive double any housing allowance or food allowance.
Subsection (4) does not apply to an employee who is employed by the Government or a statutory body in any of the essential services as defined under Part 3 of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act 1955, but —
any such employee may, despite subsection (1), be required by his or her employer to work on a public holiday or part thereof to which the employee would otherwise be entitled under that subsection; and
in any such case, the employee must be given a day or part of a day off (as the case may be) in substitution for the public holiday or part thereof.
For the purposes of this section if any public holiday falls on a half working day, the gross or basic rate of pay payable is that of a full working day.
basic rate of pay
“basic rate of pay” means the total amount of money (including wage adjustments and increments) to which an employee is entitled under his or her contract of service either for working for a period of time, that is, for one hour, one day, one week, one month or for such other period as may be stated or implied in his or her contract of service, or for each completed piece or task of work but does not include —(a)additional payments by way of overtime payments;(b)additional payments by way of bonus payments or annual wage supplements;(c)any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him or her for special expenses incurred by him or her in the course of his or her employment;(d)productivity incentive payments; and(e)any allowance however described;