Holidays Act Difficulties To Be Remedied

BusinessNZ welcomes the final moves towards fixing the Holidays Act, following the Government’s decision to replace it with a new Employment Leave Act next year.

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich says it’s hard to overstate the difficulties that have been caused by the current Holidays Act, with numerous large businesses and government departments becoming non-compliant with the Act over recent years and required to rectify millions of dollars of underpayment.

"Remedying the Act has been a long time coming, and it is positive that the planned new legislation will contain the policy recommendations of BusinessNZ members," Mrs Rich said.

BusinessNZ has long advocated for an hours-based approach to calculating leave, as this is simpler to apply to non-standard working hours than the current weeks-based system.

Other changes in the new legislation will include leave entitlements required to be proportionate to hours worked, access to leave entitlements from the first day of employment, increased leave compensation payments for casual employees, more flexibility to cash up annual leave, and requirements for employers to provide explicit pay statements.

"Employers and employees are looking forward to simpler, more predictable leave provision in future," Mrs Rich said.

© Scoop Media