Adding the Queen's Memorial public holiday - September 2022 - New Zealand

This month, New Zealand will mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with a one-off public holiday on Monday 26 September.

Legislation will be passed next week to bring the holiday into force, and the normal public holiday requirements under the Holidays Act will apply. For more information on the new holiday, see the Prime Minister's press release – Public Holiday on 26 September to Mark Passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

In MYOB Exo Employer Services, you pay employees for the new public holiday the same way as any other, but you may need to check if there are any other payroll activities affected by the change.

South Canterbury Anniversary Day South Canterbury already has a public holiday scheduled for 26 September. We'll update this page with information about how to deal with this clash as it becomes available.

Managing the Queen's Memorial holiday

Processing the pay run

Process the Queen's Memorial holiday as you would other public holidays, by adding it to the current pay run.

For more information, see Current Pay - Public Holiday.

Adding the holiday to the public holiday loader

If you are using the public holiday loader, you can add the holiday into the loader:

Go to Special > Special applications > Public Holiday Loader. The MYOB Exo Public Holiday Loader window will open.
Click Next, then click Options at the bottom left of the window.
Go to Add / Remove public holidays, then click Add
Enter the details for the new holiday as per the screenshot below.

Setting up the holiday in time and attendance.

If you are using Time and Attendance, you can add the public holiday under Statutory Holiday Groups.

Go to Maintenance > Statutory Holiday Groups > Maintain Public Holidays.

For more detailed instructions, see online help – Adding a public holiday date for use in a statutory holiday group.

Checking other affected payroll activities

New starters and terminations

Check that you have made the appropriate arrangements to update staff who were previously scheduled to start or finish their employment on the date of the public holidays.

Pre-existing leave requests

Employees with leave already planned on the new holiday are entitled to the new holiday depending on the type of leave, and whether it was paid or unpaid:

Annual and sick leave must only be replaced if it's “paid” and the day would have been a regular/normal work day for the employee
Unpaid leave cannot be replaced by a paid public holiday

If you do have any pre-existing leave requests that need to be changed, update them accordingly.

For more information about which employees are entitled to the public holiday, see the NZ government guidance: