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New South Wales

New South Wales Public Holidays

Discover upcoming public holiday dates for New South Wales and start planning to make the most of your time off.

New South Wales public holidays are provided for by a state law called the Public Holidays Act 2010. This law sets out the 11 standard public holidays given to people in New South Wales – however the number of applicable public holidays is really 9 since many people don’t benefit from the official Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday holidays the Act sets out.

Some other key points contained in this law are:

– The designated Minister of the state government can declare additional public holidays for any given year, by publishing the announcement on the NSW legislation website a minimum of 7 days beforehand.
– Employees are entitled to be absent from work on a public holiday according to Section 114 of the Fair Work Act 2009
– Employees are entitled to pay while absent from work on public holidays, provided they meet the criteria set out in Section 116 of the Fair Work Act 2009.
– The designated Minister can declare special Local Event days at the request of local councils if the day is deemed to be of special significance to the community. These Local Event days are not official public holidays and employees are not entitled to be absent, to be paid while absent, or for penalty rates.
– This Act of 2010 replaces the original Bank and Bank Holidays Act 1912.

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