Public holidays in Rotageek are configured per location, based on the region assigned to that location (for example, England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, or other country-specific regions). Each region has its own official set of public/bank holidays, based on guidance from that region’s government.
Rotageek uses these official sources to determine which dates are treated as public holidays for each location, according to its region. Once configured, these dates are stored in your Rotageek environment so they can be:
Clearly visible to managers and admins.
Used in reporting and costing.
Referenced by any pay rules that depend on public holidays.
Example: For a location configured to the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland region, Rotageek will Northern Ireland's official list of public/bank holidays for that year.
How are public holidays added into the system?
Public holidays are added and maintained centrally by the Rotageek team for all supported regions. The list of public/bank holidays for each region is managed in our backend and kept up to date when changes are required.
When you create a location and assign it to a region, the relevant public/bank holidays for that region will automatically apply to that location.
No action is needed from your organisation to add or update public holidays.
Where can I see public holidays in Rotageek?
Public holidays are visible on the Leave Calendar.
When public holidays are configured for your region, they appear as non-user-specific entries on the Leave Calendar.
This gives managers and admins a quick way to see upcoming public holidays alongside booked leave.
Key points:
Public holidays do not belong to a specific employee; they are global dates for the region.
They are intended as context for planning and approval, so you can easily see when requests fall on a public holiday.
Note: The exact label/colour used for public holidays on the Leave Calendar may vary slightly depending on your configuration, but they will always appear as distinct entries separate from individual leave requests.
Other applications – Pay Rules Engine and costing
If your organisation uses the Rotageek Pay Rules Engine, public holidays can be used to change how hours worked on those days are treated for payroll and costing.
Typical use cases include:
Different pay codes on public holidays
For example, hours worked on a public holiday can be sent to a “Public Holiday Base” pay code instead of the standard base pay code.
Public holiday premiums
You can configure additional premium pay codes that apply on top of normal pay for any hours worked on public holidays (for example, an extra 0.5x or 1.0x for those hours).
How this is set up:
The exact configuration is defined during your implementation or as part of a later pay-rules project.
Your pay rules will reference public holidays as a condition or target so that any hours worked on those dates are costed and exported correctly to payroll.
If you’re not sure how public holidays are currently being treated in your pay rules, please contact your Rotageek Customer Success Manager.
Do public holidays stop me from scheduling staff?
No. Public holidays do not prevent scheduling.
Managers can still create and edit shifts on public holiday dates.
Public holidays are mainly there for:
Visibility (so you know you’re scheduling on a public holiday),
Costing/pay (if your pay rules treat public holiday hours differently),
Your organisation’s policies (for example, minimum staffing levels or premium pay) will determine how you choose to schedule on public holidays, not Rotageek itself.