The minister charged with looking at changes to sick leave says there is no plan to cut entitlements from 10 days to five.
But she is looking at changes that would make leave proportionate to the number of hours worked.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was asked during an interview with Morning Report whether his Government was looking at reducing the number of leave days from 10 to five.
“That’s something that I know [Workplace Relations and Safety Minister] Brooke van Velden is looking into. She looks at a whole raft of workplace relations,” Luxon replied.
“It’s a bit premature for now.”
But van Velden told RNZ it was not something she was looking into.
“My officials and I have focused on developing pro-rated sick leave, which was previously agreed to by Cabinet. We have not been developing a reduction in sick leave from 10 days to five days,” she said.
Currently, all workers – full-time, part-time or casual – are entitled to 10 days of sick leave if they have been with their employer continuously for six months, and have worked an average 10 hours a week, and at least one hour in every week or 40 hours in every month.
Workers can accumulate up to 20 days of sick leave, which means it is possible to carry over 10 days of unused sick leave into the next year.
“There is probably a need for us to look at it, for sure, and just make sure that we’ve got that setting right, particularly around proportionate sick leave for part-time workers versus full-time workers,” Luxon said.
“Brooke is looking at a package of things around workplace relations, as you’ve seen already this year, and she will continue to look at that.”
Describing the changes as “long-needed”, van Velden said she hoped to make an announcement in the coming months.
National promised during the last election campaign that it would not reduce the number of sick days employees receive.
The number of sick days was increased from five to 10 by the previous Labour Government in 2021, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
National wasn’t supportive of the changes at the time.
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After the changes were implemented, the average rate of absence from work in 2022 was the highest ever at 5.5 days per employee.
This compared to a range of 4.2 and 4.7 days for 2012 – 2020.
Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) head of advocacy Alan McDonald told Morning Report decreases in sick leave had not been discussed with the association and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), or the Work Place Minister’s team.
“I guess it’s not off the table, but it just really hasn’t come up and it’s not something as employer representatives we’ve been talking about and neither has my colleges at Business New Zealand,” McDonald said.
Workplace Relations Minister and ACT MP Brooke van Velden has been working on a draft bill that could make sick leave entitlements proportional to the hours someone works.
She said changes in the draft bill could include pro-rating sick leave “to better reflect how much an employee works”.
“Workplaces that rely on part-time workers are particularly vulnerable to unexpected staffing shortages. To explore this issue further, the exposure draft set for consultation will include a proposed approach to pro-rating sick leave, to better reflect how much an employee works,” she said last year.
rnz.co.nz
