Law keeps two holidays 'sacred'

Workers feeling a little out of sorts this week may have good reason.

Because of Waitangi Day falling on a Saturday this year, employees slogging it out from Monday to Friday have been denied a traditional day's leave.

And in worse news for the nine-to-fivers, the same thing will happen on Anzac Day in two months' time.

This is because Waitangi Day and Anzac Day are the only two public holidays in New Zealand that are non-transferable – meaning they don't roll over to the next working day even if they fall on a weekend.

According to New Zealand historian Jim McAloon, from Victoria University, Anzac Day in particular has never been made transferable, or "Mondayised", because it is a particularly sacred holiday for New Zealanders. "When it was first declared a public holiday [in 1921] it was specified that everything had to be shut, like on a Sunday," Professor McAloon said.

"It wasn't really a holiday. And then because it was such a solemn occasion it wasn't thought to be appropriate to Mondayise it."

Parliament even passed legislation in 1949 to prevent Anzac Day becoming transferable, he said.

Professor McAloon thought Waitangi Day – although not as sacred an occasion – would have been treated with similar reasoning.

Even when Prime Minister Norman Kirk changed Waitangi Day to "New Zealand Day" in 1974 and it formally became a public holiday, the idea of making it transferable was rejected (the name was changed back to Waitangi Day in 1976 by Kirk's successor Robert Muldoon).

This is despite other "sacred" holidays, such as Christmas, being Mondayised.

Taranaki anthropologist Gary Bastin, from Puke Ariki, said this was probably a reflection of what people wanted at the time.

"The decision would have been relatively arbitrary," Mr Bastin said.

"There would have been some discussion when they made the law. Often, business interest groups get really upset if you start giving days off, so they wouldn't have liked it, for example."

Mr Bastin said depending what discussion was had around Waitangi Day and Anzac Day, there might be a change of law in the future.

"It may become moveable if there is enough public support for it," he said.

Currently, New Zealand has 11 public holidays.

They come under the Holidays Act 2003 and can be changed only by an act of Parliament.

In Australia, where Anzac Day is also celebrated, it is an unconditionally non-transferable holiday in two states only. It is a moveable holiday in four states if it falls on a Sunday.

Two other states, Tasmania and Victoria, will not move the holiday no matter when it falls.