Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is today supporting a
bill that will cut annual leave entitlements for tens of
thousands of working New Zealanders as it moves through the
Committee of the Whole House in
Parliament.
“Christopher Luxon wants to take a
holiday: yours,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary
for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga
Mahi. “It is disgraceful that he is advancing a law that
will steal people’s time – their well-deserved holidays
and the time they need to recover from sickness.
“It
casts his parental leave announcement over the weekend in a
very hypocritical light.”
Luxon, along with his
National colleagues and ACT and NZ First coalition partners,
is progressing the Employment Leave Bill, which will reduce
annual and sick leave for anyone whose hours vary from week
to week, who is off work because of an injury, or who works
shorter shifts on public holidays.
The bill, which
would replace the Holidays Act, would introduce a system
where workers accrue annual and sick leave for “standard”
hours they’re required to work under their employment
agreement.
Overtime and extra hours would not accrue
leave, so anyone regularly working those extra hours would
get less leave than they do under the current law, which
guarantees at least four weeks annual leave and ten days
sick leave a year.
“Workers will be getting less leave
for the same amount of work – passing this bill would be
deeply unfair, especially in in a cost-of-living crisis,”
said Fitzsimons.
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Workers would also not accrue leave
while getting compensation from ACC, and people working
shorter shifts on public holidays will no longer receive a
full day in lieu to compensate.
“This heartless law
does not recognise the disruption caused to family life and
personal time by working on public holidays,” said
Fitzsimons.
The PSA represents many of the people who
would be worse off, including those working in hospitals,
those caring for mental health patients, corrections
officers, and care and support workers looking after our
most vulnerable.
Last week the PSA also revealed analysis
that the bill would cut the pay of over 200,000 New
Zealanders. The PSA also gave
all MPs the opportunity to pledge to oppose any changes
that will leave workers worse off – only Labour, Green, and
Te Pāti Māori MPs signed.
“Working people deserve
holidays, and they deserve to be paid properly for them. We
will be fighting for the repeal of this bill and for a
government that respects working people,” said
Fitzsimons.
The Public
Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is
Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and
supporting more than 95,000 workers across central
government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health
boards and community
groups.
