FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commonly known as Show Day, it is an annual event to give people the opportunity to participate or attend the show.

Show Day is Friday 28 February 2014.

The Show will be held from Friday 28 February until Sunday 2 March 2014 at the Newcastle Regional Showground at Broadmeadow

For more information, go to www.newcastleshow.com.au

Over the past few years, Show Day has been declared either a local public holiday or local event day for theLakeMacquarieandNewcastlelocal government areas. 

Lake Macquarie City Council’s decision to apply for either a local public holiday or local event day is influenced by community feedback and liaison with the NSW Department of Industrial Relations. 

Community feedback will be reported to Council before an application is made to the Department, which is the final consent authority.

Declaring Show Day a full or part-day local public holiday will impact on workplaces in different ways, depending on workplace awards, agreements and contracts. 

 A full-day or half-day local public holiday for Lake Macquarie will impact businesses located in the Lake Macquarie local government area.

To find out if it is lawful for your business to open, go to NSW Government Industrial Relations or
call 13 16 28.

To check the appropriate public holiday wages and conditions go to the Fair Work Ombudsman or
call 13 13 94.

If Show Day is declared a local event day in Lake Macquarie City, employers and employees will need to refer to their enterprise agreements or contracts of employment to decide if they have any entitlements.

When the Minister for Industrial Relations makes a decision, Council will advise the community via Council’s website and local media.

The Department of Industrial Relations states:

Where a local public holiday is declared by the Minister a bank located in the designated holiday area will be required to close unless it holds an approval to open on the day under Part 3A of the Retail Trading Act 2008.  Shops located within the designated holiday area are free to open without restriction.

The public holiday provisions contained in the National Employment Standards of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) apply to local public holidays declared under the Public Holidays Act 2010.  This means that all employees irrespective of their former entitlements and whose place of work is within a local public holiday area will be entitled to be absent from work on the day or half day that is the local public holiday or half holiday.  In addition, employees who work on the day or part day may then have an entitlement to penalty rates under a relevant award where previously that entitlement may not have existed.

 The Department of Industrial Relations states:

…the day or part day is, and will be observed as, a day of special significance to the community in the area concerned.

The declaration of a local event day or half day does not preclude banks or shops located within the designated holiday area from opening or trading on the day.

A declared local event day does not automatically mean that employers in the particular locality are compelled to treat the day as a public holiday.  Entitlement to paid time off work or penalty rates on a local event day will only arise where they have been agreed at the workplace level usually in the form of an enterprise agreement or a contract.

 There are many scenarios for how Show Day will impact workplaces, depending on whether the day is gazetted a full or half-day local public holiday or a local event day.  For more information, please contact the Department of Industrial Relations or call 131 628.