The Government is considering changes to current sick leave entitlements, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon indicating that reducing sick leave from 10 to five days is on the table.
Speaking to RNZ, Luxon said:
“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.”
While he noted it was “a bit premature for now,” he added:
“I think there’s 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 and those sorts of things.”
Luxon confirmed that van Velden is working on a broader workplace relations package:
“She’ll continue to talk about [it] as you’ve seen already this year.”
In a separate appearance on Newstalk ZB, Luxon suggested changes were likely and an announcement regarding sick leave could be expected, though no timeframe was given.
Current Sick Leave Law (NZ) Under current legislation:
Employees (full-time, part-time, or casual) are entitled to 10 days of sick leave per year.
Eligibility requires:
Six months of continuous employment with the same employer.
Working at least 10 hours per week on average.
At least one hour in every week, or 40 hours in every month.
The argument that these guys always make is that “its hard on small businesses”, and they’re not exactly wrong there. If I have to be able to pay two weeks wages to each employee with no productivity in return, that’s a gamble which requires me to inflate my pricing enough to cover the worst odds, or risk running out of operating cash if everyone comes down sick in the same window.
What they seem to overlook every time though, is that rather than cutting entitlements which are in the bigger picture beneficial to both parties, a much simpler solution would be to roll up sick leave into ACC and increase that levy proportionately.
Everyone employer pays the same known rate, and can be more confident in their cashflow, while every employee is guaranteed the leave they need to recover, regardless of how long they have been employed.