An Employee Has Asked to
#changethedate
What does this mean and what are my obligations?
Your employee would like to support the #changethedate movement by actually changing the date they take their public holiday.
How is Changing the Date Possible?
As our website helps people to discover, often an employees award or workplace agreement allows employees and employers to agree to substitute an individuals public holiday for another day.
We've provided a starter guide to help...
Your Employee is Only Asking to
Support Their Beliefs
While the #changethedate movement believes that all of Australia should find a new day, your employee's request is solely related to their own Australia Day celebration.
They would like to work on the 26th of January and celebrate Australia on a different day.
Your employee feels, like many Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people, that the 26th of January can only be a time for mourning. It was on this date in 1788, that the first of Great Britain's fleet arrived, beginning the dispossession of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.
So how can that date mean something joyous to Australia's First People?
This doesn't diminish your employee's desire to celebrate Australia, it simply recognises that the 26th of January isn't the date we should celebrate.
Australia’s Great!
That’s why we want everyone to be able to celebrate it.
Unfortunately, we can't change what happened as a result of January 26th 1788, so how can it mean something joyous for Australia's First People.
Learn more
about why we #changethedate
