Boxing Day holiday is December 28, not 26

By Aaron Humes: The upcoming Christmas holidays are effectively a four-day weekend, including Monday, December 28.

But if you find yourself working on the 26th of December, known as Boxing Day, please note that according to the Government, you will not get overtime this year.

“Saturday, December 26th, 2020 is not being observed as a public and bank holiday this year,” a Government statement says.

Boxing Day will be observed on Monday, December 28 and all work done on that day will be paid according to the overtime rules in Section 117(3) of the Labour Act; that is, “All work done on public holidays other than Christmas Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday, which fall on a scheduled workday on which a worker would have worked but for the public holiday, shall be paid for at one and one-half times his ordinary rate of pay.” Belizeans usually refer to it as “time-and-a-half.”

According to the Holidays Act, Saturday and Sunday are considered dies non (from the Latin phrase dies non juridicum, literally ‘Day without judiciary’, “a day when courts do not sit or carry on business.”

Only certain holidays are observed on other days that are not their original dates under Belize law: these are the ninth day of March – (Baron Bliss Day); the twenty-fourth day of May – (Sovereign’s Day); and the twelfth day of October (Pan American/Columbus Day).

Christmas falls on a Friday and will be observed on that day; however, the 26th day of December, Boxing Day, falls on a Saturday and will be observed on the Monday.

New Year’s Day, January 1, will also fall on a Friday.

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