Good record keeping protects the employer in the case of a dispute and ensures that an employee's entitlements are correctly met.

Legally you must maintain holiday and leave records for all employees in order to demonstrate that you have met the minimum employment rights.  These records must be kept for six years for every employee.

Keep a note if your employee chooses to work public holiday, take the alternate days or 'cash up' the alternate days.

For more information on cashing up, refer to your compliance toolkit folder, holiday and leave guide.

If you currently do not operate a system for recording holiday and leave records create one now and begin using it straight away for every employee.

If you have a system in place ensure it meets the legal requirement. 

• The name of the employee
• The date employment commenced
• The days on which an employee works, if the information is relevant to entitlement or payment under the Holidays Act
• The date the employee last became entitled to annual holidays
• The employee's current entitlement to annual holidays
• The employee's current entitlement to sick leave
• The dates any annual holiday, sick or bereavement leave was taken
• The amount of payment for any annual holidays, sick leave and bereavement leave taken
• The dates of and payment for any public holiday worked
• The number of hours worked on any public holiday
• The date on which the employee became entitled to any alternative holiday for any public holiday worked
• The dates and payment of any public holiday or alternative holiday on which the employee did not work, but for which the employee had an entitlement to payment
• The cash value of board and lodgings provided
• The cash value of any alternative holidays that the employee has surrendered for payment
• The date of termination
• The amount of pay for holidays on termination.