Public servants working on Anzac Day 'devalues' the day of remembrance, opposition spokesperson for Veterans' Affairs Barnaby Joyce says

The Nationals MP is calling for the government to reverse a decision to allow public servants to substitute their public holidays on Australia Day, Queen's Birthday and Anzac Day for a different day off.

Public servants can substitute their days off, subject to their agency's enterprise agreement and approval from their managers.

Flexibility had been in place for almost nine years under the Coalition before the Morrison government last year announced public servants must not work on the three public holidays.

This change was then reversed by the Albanese government in January this year, in a move Mr Joyce said "devalues" Tuesday's day of remembrance.

"In the past, there have been many Commonwealth public servants required to work on Anzac Day such as our Federal Police, Border Security, military and staff at the Australian War Memorial. However, these employees have always been required to work," Mr Joyce said in a statement on Sunday.

"In January, the Labor government reversed that, so now any public servant has the right to request that they just swap the Anzac Day holiday for another day and for any reason at all.

"That devalues what a day of remembrance is all about. Maybe it was a mistake, but mistakes should be corrected."

The former deputy prime minister said it is a day off to attend memorial services, "not a day off somewhere else to go elsewhere".

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Mr Joyce said he knew most Commonwealth employees would "ignore the government's new directive" and take the Anzac Day public holiday off work.

"But my plea to anyone considering taking up the government's policy, is that they instead stop and remember those who have served and those who have fallen," he said.

"We may not agree with the reasons our nation gets involved in a war, but we never denigrate those who served in one, like the disgraceful treatment of many who returned from the Vietnam War."

A spokesperson for Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said any request to substitute a public holiday was a matter between an employee and their manager or agency boss.

"Substitute public holidays are about flexibility and understanding the needs of the modern workforce," the spokesperson said.

"Due to the nature of the public service, some employees are required to work on public holidays - indeed, due to the specific nature of that day or the ongoing responsibilities of government.

"Some Australians need to work on these holidays to enable the majority of us to respectfully observe.

"For nine years of the previous government, there was flexibility to substitute days. We have continued that flexibility."

Data on the number of public servants who requested to work on January 26 showed only a small proportion took the option.

However many agencies struggled to provide figures of the total number of public servants who worked the day, as requests were generally made to managers of individual teams and not centrally recorded.

A total of 57 employees at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which employed 1233 people at the time of the agency's last annual report, opted to work on the Australia Day public holiday and take another day off.

The Attorney-General's Department, which had 1900 staff at the last count, approved 67 employees to work on Australia Day.