OT, but really: Since when does a public holiday (I believe these are disclosed in advance in documents you can acquire in an office-supply store) disrupt payroll operations so badly that a paycheck is skipped?
Twenty years ago banks (at least in the US) shut down over the weekend. Some pioneers like BoA had Saturday morning hours, but if there was a national holiday good effin luck getting anything from them outside of what was available at an ATM. You have to remember banks, even now, are and were way behind the technology curve. There was no online banking. No customer focus. No check deposits at an ATM (you had to drop it into an overnight bin). Payroll companies followed suit, and any financially-centric company did as well.
Well that's probably what he was thinking! You'd think they'd be able to get it sorted a bit faster than "sorry guys, guess you'll have to tell your landlords to hold on a month!" Good on Dave.
A small company I know of had an issue where an accounting period ended before Jan. 1 for some reason, so people accidentally ate up next year's vacation over Christmas. Every one was pissed, but it got worked out. Accounting is weird because accountants are OCD and there have to be 13 equal periods in the year.