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Easter weekend public holiday and liquor licensing requirements

Tuesday, 19 February 2013
The public holidays over Easter this year fall on Good Friday 29 March and Easter Monday 1 April - both days are observed as public holidays. However, Easter Sunday is not a public holiday for the purposes of the Holidays Act.

There are a few scenarios that accommodation employers must be aware of when employees are working on public holidays. A member resource on public holidays includes an easy to follow flow chart that will assist members to determine employee entitlements.

The Sale of Liquor Act prohibits the sale of liquor by accommodation providers on Good Friday and Easter Sunday to any person other than:
  • Persons living on the premises as a lodger or an employee
  • Patrons present on the premises for the purposes of dining or if a special licence has been obtained that allow trading for the purpose of an occasion or event or a social gathering.
Accordingly, accommodation providers serving alcohol must close at midnight on Thursday 28 March, ahead of Good Friday and at midnight on Saturday 30 March, ahead of Easter Sunday. However, accommodation providers will not be in breach of their licence if they open at midnight on Good Friday or Easter Sunday and trade until their closing time for Saturday and Monday respectively where the licence provides for trading hours later than midnight.

Finally if applying a surcharge on any of the public holidays to cover added costs of trading, the amount of the surcharge must be clearly displayed to patrons, for example on the menu or blackboard, prior to patrons ordering anything to which a surcharge applies.

Member Resources

For your convenience the following member resources links are available below or you may wish to click here to log onto your member dashboard to select these member resources as favourites to your dashboard.
If you have any queries, please contact your Hospitality NZ Regional Manager on 0800 500 503.