31 August 2004

Employers Should “Put up or Shut up” on Holidays Act Changes

“It is now time for employers to produce hard evidence to support their claims that workers are abusing sick leave under the new Holidays Act,” Council of Trade Unions President Ross Wilson said today.

The Minister of Labour today tabled in Parliament a Bill to amend the Holidays Act 2003 which includes a right for employers to call for proof of illness during the first three days where there is reasonable cause to suspect the entitlement is being misused.

“Allegations like this are being made by employers on anecdotal rumour but no hard evidence has yet been produced,” Ross Wilson said

“There is some justification for amendments to correct unintended doubling up on penal rates on statutory holidays or to clarify that workers off sick on a public holiday don’t get rate and a half,” he said. “But there is no clear evidence to support the tightening up on medical certificates.”

The CTU would hold a special meeting of affiliated unions on Friday to discuss the Holidays Amendment Bill.

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.

CONTACT NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS

• Website - union.org.nz/
• Phone - +64 4 385 1334
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• Physical Address - Level 7, West Block, Education House, 178 Willis St, Wellington.

• Media Contact - huiaw@nzctu.org.nz
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• Postal Address - PO Box 6645, Marion Square, Wellington 6141.

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>