Wellington City Mission – Non-profit organisation 

The Challenge 

Wellington City Mission (WCM), a New Zealand social services organisation with approximately 280 employees, faced challenges in managing public holiday entitlements under the Holidays Act 2003. Their implementation of the TimeFiler workforce management system revealed the complexity of compliance when employees work varied patterns, including overnight shifts that cross midnight into or out of public holidays. 

The complexity of "normal day" determination

Under the Holidays Act 2003, employees are entitled to public holiday benefits only when the public holiday falls on what would otherwise be a "normal working day" for them.

WCM's challenge was compounded by several factors:

1. Mondayisation isn't universal

Unlike many organisations that simply observe Mondayised public holidays for all employees, WCM needed to accommodate:

2. Shifts crossing midnight

Determining which "day" a shift belongs to became critical:

For transitional housing staff working overnight shifts, an employee works from 19:00 on a non-public holiday into a public holiday the next morning, the system paid the hours before midnight as ordinary time and the hours after midnight as a public holiday rate. The decision affected immediate pay rates and if it was an otherwise working day for the employee, they would earn an alternative holiday credit.

For the Rest Home and Hospital, TimeFiler implemented a "majority of rostered hours" rule. The system examined where the majority of an employee's rostered hours fell relative to midnight. If most of the hours were rostered after midnight, the entire shift was treated as falling on the following day, even the hours worked before midnight.

A scenario which could have introduced a compliance risk

An employee rostered 21:00-05:00+ works from Monday (non-public holiday) into Tuesday (public holiday). If the majority of their rostered hours fall after midnight, the entire shift is paid at public holiday rates and generates a credit alternative holiday. However, if the employee did not work on Tuesday evening, they may also have received a statutory public holiday payment for Tuesday. This would have resulted in two public holiday entitlements being applied for the same public holiday..

The Solution

Wellington City Mission implemented TimeFiler, but the real breakthrough was in how they configured it.

Step 1: The averaging test for non-rostered days

When a public holiday falls on a day an employee isn't rostered, the system must perform an averaging test: Has the employee worked or taken paid leave on that day of the week for at least four of the previous four weeks? Only then is it considered a "normal day" qualifying for statutory holiday payment.

Step 2: Top-up payments

When employees work on a public holiday but for fewer hours than rostered, they're entitled to a "top-up" statutory holiday payment for the difference. However, for overnight shifts crossing midnight, calculating whether hours fall "short" requires first determining which day the shift is attributed to under the majority rule.

Step 3: Apply the "Majority Rule"

For overnight workers, the system asks one simple question: Where do most of your rostered hours fall?

Here's how it works:

1. System checks the roster: 22:00-06:00 shift
2. Counts hours before midnight: 2 hours (22:00-24:00)
3. Counts hours after midnight: 6 hours (00:00-06:00)
4. Majority after midnight? → Entire shift treated as "Tuesday work"
5. Tuesday is a public holiday? → Whole shift paid at public holiday rates

Step 4: Building a system rule to prevent future errors

To bring everything together, WCM and TimeFiler configured a rule within TimeFiler that permanently eliminated the risk of double-paying the same public holiday, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and confidence going forward. Before TimeFiler, all these checks were completed manually. There is now a fast, reliable electronic solution, freeing up considerable time.