WorkCover payments and public holidays in Victoria

Do you get paid public holidays when on workcover in Victoria?

You don’t get paid for public holidays while on WorkCover in the same way that you would if you were not on WorkCover. When on WorkCover, public holidays may be factored in to your pre injury average weekly earnings calculation, and it’s on this calculation that your weekly payments are based.

Public holidays will be taken into account in your weekly payments if they were paid to you in the period during which your pre injury average weekly earnings was calculated.

The rest of this page will explore the matter further.

Weekly payments are based on your pre-injury average weekly earnings

Your pre-injury average weekly earnings, or PIAWE is what your WorkCover weekly payments are based on.

The way that your pre-injury average weekly earnings are calculated is that an average of your earnings over the 12 month period with this employer prior to the injury being suffered is taken.

This average is called your pre injury average weekly earnings and it is then used as the basis for calculating your weekly payments.

If you’ve read our page on weekly payments, you’ll know that weekly payments are paid at the rate of 95% of your pre-injury average weekly earnings for the first 13 weeks, and thereafter at 80%.

If you had not been with an employer for twelve months prior to an injury occurring, then the WorkCover insurer will take an average of your earnings over the period that you were employed with that particular employer.

This is the case whether you’ve been employed with this employer for only a few weeks, or perhaps six months.

Pre injury average weekly earnings can in some instances be calculated in alternative ways. However, for above should be applicable for most people.

How does my PIAWE determine whether I’m paid public holidays while on WorkCover?

As mentioned above, if in the pre injury average weekly earnings period (whether that be the twelve month period or a shorter period) if you were paid for a particular public holiday then this will be included in your weekly payments calculation.

A person is paid their normal WorkCover weekly payment amount from the insurer, and then if a public holiday falls on a particular day of that week – they will not receive a payment on top of their weekly payment amount for that public holiday.

What about public holidays while I’m a casual worker?

As a casual worker, you would not usually have been paid public holidays. So if it wasn’t something you were paid for in the PIAWE calculation period, then it won’t be factored in to your payments calculation.

What if there is a new public holiday?

For example, in 2020 a new public holiday was introduced in Victoria just prior to the AFL grand final.

If a person was on WorkCover prior to this then this new public holiday would not have been included in the PIAWE calculation.

Conclusion

A person will be paid weekly payments under WorkCover based on their average earnings over a specified period of time prior to them suffering injury (their pre injury average weekly earnings).

If in that calculation period they were paid for the public holiday, then that will form part of their overall weekly payments calculation.

Under WorkCover in Victoria, a person will not be paid their weekly payments amount and then an extra amount for a particular public holiday.