MEDIA RELEASE

08 April 2004

Public Holiday Rates Return After a Decade

For the first time in more than a decade all employees who have to work this Easter will be paid at least time and a half as well as get a day off in lieu, Council of Trade Unions secretary Carol Beaumont said today.

The new Holidays Act, which required all staff who work on public holidays to be paid time and a half, came into effect on April 1.

Some employer groups were resisting the change, but staff working on public holidays were missing out on time with family and friends and needed to be compensated, Carol Beaumont said.

“Employers should not think that they can ignore the new law,” she said. “Unions will be making sure members receive their full legal entitlements.”

Costs to employers were minor compared with the huge savings they have made since time and a half for public holidays was scrapped in 1990, Carol Beaumont said. “In assessing the effects of changes to the Holidays Act, all costs and benefits to workers and employers must be considered.”

ENDS

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New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Te Kauae Kaimahi

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi brings together over 350,000 New Zealand union members in 40 affiliated unions. We are the united voice for working people and their families in New Zealand.

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• Website - union.org.nz/
• Phone - +64 4 385 1334
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