Easter Hols for Helper

You cannot legally not give them the day off. It's against the law to not give them their statutory holidays. I know many do that but it's not legal. You can change their day off to another day if you want, but you can't NOT give them the day off, even if you want to pay them extra to work that day. A helper can voluntarily work if they want, but they can't be pressured, required or paid to work on their holidays.
 
i think that was lesliefu is saying is that you can give your helpers the additional holidays unpaid if you both wish. that would mean deducting around $150 per "unpaid" holiday day from their normal monthly pay.
 
Oh ok, sorry for misunderstanding...

I've found that there's a lot of stuff that is wrongly stated about all the laws. Even the agency that we are going through to hire our helper has told us that we don't need to pay for our helper's medical check and for her transport from her home city to Manila - but the document I read that was provided by the government clearly states that those things (PLUS I think $100 per day for food allowance) are our responsibility. I think that sometimes people don't realise their legal rights and responsibilities in the helper/employer relationship and there's a lot of confusion about it all...
 
Friday April 2nd - Public Holiday
Saturday April 3rd - Public Holiday
Sunday April 4th - like any other Sunday
Monday April 5th - Public Holiday
Tuesday April 6th - Statutory Holiday.

Ching Ming is on Monday - usually this would make Monday a Stat Holiday, but because it is already a Public Holiday, the Stat Holiday gets passed over to Tuesday.

It's the annual thread on "How little time can I give my helper?" Can you imagine if your/your spouse's employer refused to pay you your salary for the stat holiday because you'd only been in the job for 2 months and 27 days?

It amazes me how people can work out how to log onto the relevant thread in this site, but not how to use Google and read the government page that gives you all the facts.

I understand that there are people in jobs who don't get the 'normal' holidays (and we are a family in this position) - but the Easter holidays are incredibly important to the Catholic helpers, and giving the holidays helps to set up a positive relationship with a helper. Just give it some thought.
 
thanks for clarifying aussiemum....

actually the food allowance for helpers now is $750 / 780 (some where around there) and that is built into the contract. HOWEVER, employers can opt to not give the food allowance if they ensure they provide all meals for the helper instead...i'm thinking some families that are not so well off themselves, would opt to do this (not that I would - but I'm sure some people do)....

as for statutory holidays and public holidays...they are two different things and helpers are only allowed "statutory holidays" and not public holidays (of course you can give it to them if you wish - but like food allowance, I'm sure some people will not). you can't pay a helper for staying in on a statutory holiday, unless it is agreed upon by both helper and you - and if they insist on taking holiday on a statutory holiday it is their legal right. actually, my helper didn't want to take tsing ming off because she already had a day off on saturday and instead is taking time off on thursday, I had offered to pay her for not taking the day off, but she wanted to take the day off...just another day - i think it's all about communication and knowing what's fair and right.
 
as a matter of fact for the food allowance, we NEVER gave it to our helper. it had nothing to do with "not so well off" it had to do with use of her time/size of our kitchen/storage etc.

to me it seemed crazy for her to cook 4 meals per day when she only had to cook 2. she was quite happy with our arrangements for over 5 years. however, when her husband joined us, i offered to give them a food allowance or to continue to eat our food. i told them that it didn't really matter to me, just that i wanted to make sure that they used the allowance for food. the ONLY reason they decided on the food allowance was because her husband wanted it. my helper did NOT want the food allowance, she was quite happy with eating what we ate.

ps> i believe the food allowance is $740/month. we, however, give $500/week every Sunday. we also provide rice, oil, spices and other condiments.
 
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