Mark your calendars with these public holidays in 2015

Start planning your long weekends.

The Ministry of manpower has released the dates for the 11 gazetted public holidays for 2015. Tentatively, Deepavali will fall on 10 November 2015. As with previous years, the Deepavali date on 10 November 2015 may be subject to change, and will need to be reconfirmed when the Hindu Almanac is available, usually by the first half of the year. 

Meanwhile, the Deepavali date for 2014 has now been confirmed. The Hindu Advisory Board (HAB) has advised that Deepavali will fall on 22 October 2014 (Wednesday) instead of 23 October 2014 (Thursday). 22 October 2014 (Wednesday) will be gazetted as a public holiday.

MOM reminds all employers that under the Employment Act, an employee who is required to work on a public holiday is entitled to an extra day’s salary at the basic rate of pay, in addition to the gross rate of pay for that holiday.

The employer and employee may mutually agree to substitute a public holiday for any other day. From 1 April 2014, employers have the additional option to grant time-off-in-lieu for persons employed in a managerial or executive position, who earn a basic monthly salary not exceeding $4,500, and who are required to work on a public holiday. The time off-in-lieu will be based on a mutually agreed number of hours between the employer and the employee.