Firefighters have won a victory in their multimillion-dollar battle for holiday entitlements after the Supreme Court yesterday granted them leave to appeal.
The court said the approved grounds for the appeal were:
* Whether the Court of Appeal correctly construed the phrase "a day that would otherwise be
a working day for the employee" in section 57 (1) (b) of the Holidays Act 2003.
* Whether the Court of Appeal was right to conclude that section 57 (1) (a) does not require specific agreement between employer and employee as to the specific day for the taking of an alternative holiday.
Last December, the Court of Appeal ruled for the Fire Services Commission and against the Professional Firefighters Union.
The two parties have been at loggerheads over the implications of the Holidays Act 2003, which came into effect in April 2004. Firefighters work a fixed roster of four days on, four days off for a 160-day period, followed by 16 days' off. The 16 days include a mixture of annual leave and days in lieu for public holidays worked.
The union has argued since the act came into force that firefighters should also be entitled to a day off for any public holiday worked.
It said the day in lieu had to fall on a day that would otherwise be a working day, which meant it could not fall within the 16-day period, which was time off.
In August 2005, the Employment Court agreed, ruling firefighters should be granted an extra day off for each public holiday worked, and ordering backpay to April 2004. The commission then appealed against that decision and won.
- NZPA
