Workers demand new public holiday for more family time

Hundreds of retail, fast food and warehouse workers have gathered at parliament to demand an additional public holiday in their state.

Members of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association marched to NSW parliament on Tuesday, to protest the state having the fewest public holidays in the country.

South Coast retail worker Donna Tyrrell said workers wanted September 1 to become a public holiday to allow them to spend more time with their families.

"As everyone knows, retail work is not a Monday to Friday nine to five job," she said.

"Most of our workers don't get to eat meals with their family at night time."

Western Australia, which previously had the least amount of public holidays in the country, legislated two additional ones earlier this year, bringing its total to 13.

SDA NSW Secretary Bernie Smith called on Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Costis to bump the state's number of public holidays from 11 to 12.

"Why does New South Wales have less? We should have the same rights as everyone else," he said.

"We think a new public holiday at the beginning of spring will be a great time for our community to stop, to make memories instead of money."

Ms Costis, who attended the protest and received a petition signed by 10,000 workers supporting the move, said the government would conduct a review of public holidays.

She said the government earlier this year announced a new public holiday to mark Anzac Day in 2026 and 2027.

But Business Sydney executive director Paul Nicolaou said it was hard to justify an additional public holiday because of the costs associated with it at a time that businesses were doing it tough. "We have the utmost respect for workers particularly in the retail sector, but it really is a question of timing," he told AAP.

Ms Costis also announced that the government was set to introduce new laws aimed at protecting retail workers from violence, intimidation and harassment.

The Workplace Protection Orders would help workers or business owners seek court orders against those who attack staff.