Business faces chaos this week as every mainland state has a public holiday, but not all on the same day, costing the nation an estimated $4 billion in lost productivity and wages.

However, some business groups estimate the cost could be higher because at the same time, work for the states not on leave diminishes.

Western Australia and the ACT had public holidays on Monday for the Queen's Birthday and Family and Community Day respectively.

On Friday, Victoria will have a grand final eve public holiday and next Monday NSW, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT will have the Labor Day public holiday.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the lack of synchronisation across the country was certainly costly and inconvenient, especially for businesses with a national presence or that operate across state borders, and some savings could be realised with greater alignment of holidays. 

"It is, however, less an issue of concern than the way the Victorian government recently introduced a new holiday without a proper evaluation of the costs and consequences," Mr Willox said.

Based on recent analysis undertaken independently by Ai Group and PwC on the new Victorian public holiday, a national public holiday could be expected to cost the national economy between $3 billion and $4 billion from a combination of the day's pay for no work undertaken on the additional holiday and the additional penalty rates paid for employees whose place of employment remained open.

GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN 

Under the current industrial relations framework, many workers are paid double time and a half to work on public holidays, but according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, many businesses just won't open.

Unions have vowed to start a grassroots campaign against any federal government attempt to cut penalty rates, following the release of a Productivity Commission draft report into Australia's workplace relations framework.

On Sunday, Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg said the government needed to examine the current penalty rate scheme because cuts could spur economic growth.

ACCI chief executive Kate Carnell said Australia was desperately trying to improve productivity and if the government was serious about it, public holidays like this needed to be "low hanging fruit".

She said it was disruptive for not only one day, but because different states had public holidays on different days, productivity across the nation would be affected for the week.

"It's inefficient and it impacts businesses, the impact – it's just horrendous," Ms Carnell said.

A report for the Victorian government by PwC estimated the loss of economic activity because of the proposed public holiday would be between $680 million and $852 million a year.

On top of that, PwC estimated that Victorian employers would pay additional wages of between $117 million and $147 million in penalty rates for the public holiday, if they chose to open for business on that day. 

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive John Hart said there needed to be a core set of public holidays and then if states wanted additional days, penalty rates would not apply.

He said from research by the industry group, it's estimated 39,000 people would be employed on a public holiday if pay rates were at Saturday levels, about 40,000 shifts.

"And in addition to that, that's about 60,000 hours of work," Mr Hart said.

Research by Restaurant and Catering Australia found that every public holiday in Victoria cost 16,800 hours and about10,000 jobs (shifts that are cancelled) because of the penalty rates that have to be paid.

"That's all productivity coming out of the system," Mr Hart said.

"These additional public holidays don't mean anything to anyone. I don't really see who is benefiting."

A recent report commissioned by the NSW Business Chamber found that employees considered almost half of Australian public holidays to be comparatively less important and would require significantly less than the current double time and a half penalty rate to work on those days.

The report found that for public holidays that they regard as less important, such as Queen's Birthday, Labour Day, Easter Monday and Show Days, retail employees would accept a 46 per cent to 48 premium  to work a weekday or Saturday, while restaurant employees would accept a 26.9 per cent premium to work on a weekday and 53.5 per cent to work on a Saturday.   

GHOST TOWN

Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Mark Stone has urged the Victorian government to make this year's public holiday a once-off.

He has warned the government the city will be like a "ghost town" for the thousands of visitors as many businesses in the CBD and even regionally would be unable to afford to open.

"The two new holidays widen the disparity between public holiday arrangements across Australia," Mr Stone said. 

"Victoria now has a nationwide high of 13 public holidays, compared to states like NSW with 11 and Queensland and Western Australia with 10."

In a dramatic move, Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce executive director Geoff Gwilym has said he would work on Friday but divert his pay to charity.

His stunt is in the name of small businesses that  are being forced to either open and pay workers double time, or close and lose productivity and income.

He said Victorian businesses would lose thousands of dollars, whether they open or close their businesses on the grand final eve public holiday.