Holidays Act Nightmare for Pay Clerks

Holidays Act Nightmare for Pay Clerks

The record keeping requirements of the new Holidays Act will send many employers into a tail-spin, according to the head of Payroll company, Comacc. Steve Nathan says the new Act requires far more information to be recorded for each employee, potentially adding an enormous workload.

"This is a far cry from the "we're reducing compliance costs for small to medium enterprises" mantra being chanted my many government ministers"

"Most business commentators have discussed the ramifications of the new Act in terms of financial impact," he says. "But in practical terms it is going to be a major workload for the administration staff responsible for pay records."

His company has expanded its products to accommodate the new requirements, but he says employers with old software or manual systems are going to be caught out.

"I'm sure some employers will try and manage these records manually, but for more than five employees, it will become a job in itself," he says. When the Act comes into effect on April 1, employers will have to record specific details of each leave day taken by employees and engage in complicated formulae to determine accurate pay rates. Under the old system, just noting that a day had been taken during a pay period was enough.

"From April 1 we have to record specific details and be able to track these details, plus calculate holiday pay on a whole new basis." He is advising employers to 'get up to speed' with the new Act, before it comes into effect.

"The scary thing is there are still many employers out there saying, "What holiday pay changes?" Ignorance is no defence and the penalties for not getting it right are significant," he says.

Comacc have produced a free 8-page guide to assist employers to review if their current payroll system will be able to meet the requirements of the new act. This can be downloaded from www.comacc.co.nz.

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New Holidays Act comes into force by 1 April 2004 and it's no joke.

This is a serious law change. Do you understand how the changes will impact on your business. Have you checked your payroll will cope. (Of course all Comacc clients will receive their usual upgrades in plenty of time).

We have produced a simple guide to help you assess if your payroll will cope with the changes. You can download it FREE at www.comacc.co.nz. You can also have your say on the act in the NEW Holidays Act 2003 section of www.payrollforum.com.

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