Not far behind is the Holidays Act, a fiendishly complex set of laws which have confounded a generation of payroll practitioners. The complexities of the Act have led to many employers — notably the government itself — underpaying staff and then having to recompense them.
Many settlements have been made years later, further complicating an already labyrinthine process: some public sector claims are still to be settled.
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden has proposed a more streamlined and simple system where annual and sick leave entitlements are calculated as a ratio of hours worked. Although the devil, as always, will be in the detail, it seems most workers will be relatively unaffected.
Those who stand to lose are part-time workers, whose current automatic entitlement to the same four weeks of annual leave and 10 days sick leave as full-timers will become an entitlement earned from hours worked.
Casual workers are winners out of these proposals, earning a leave compensation payment rather than accruing annual and sick leave. That should entitle them to more money up front, something few will complain about.
Proposed changes which the new accumulate as you work system will enable are for bereavement leave and sick leave benefits to be available from week one of employment, rather than having to wait six months. This is eminently sensible, especially in a pandemic environment where those who are sick are encouraged to stay home.
Also sensible is the flexibility that the proposed new system offers to take leave or sick leave on an hourly rather than daily basis: workers will now be able to take a small portion of leave to pop out to the doctor or to get a scan, rather than needing to claim a day.
The Council of Trade Unions has welcomed many of the proposals and anything which might make the process of paying staff simpler, endorsement which suggests Ms van Velden’s reforms have been generally well thought out.
Despite such seemingly business-friendly initiatives — as much of this proposed law change is — the government is still struggling to enjoy the approval of the commercial community.
This week The New Zealand Herald’s Mood Of The Boardroom survey results were released, a for some MPs sobering report card ahead of next year’s election.
Given the survey participants are all corporate high-flyers the survey — unsurprisingly — rated front bench MPs from the parties traditionally regarded as pro-business (National, Act New Zealand) more favourably.
That said, the in this context decent ranking for Labour’s finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds will encourage that party: low rankings for her leader and colleagues were predictable.
National, however, would have been dismayed by the mid-table rankings of its leader, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, and the Finance Minister Nicola Willis.
A former chief executive, Mr Luxon is arguably, the most business-adjacent PM New Zealand has ever had. His difficulty gaining the respect of his former peers demonstrates that success in one sphere does not automatically translate into success in another.
Ms Willis had none of Mr Luxon’s commercial background when pitched into the always testing finance portfolio. For her first Budget she had the luxury of being able to sheet all blame back to the previous government, but the lukewarm response to her second Budget suggests patience with that strategy is wearing thin.
In fairness to Mr Luxon and Ms Willis, they have had to cope with international headwinds which they could not have forecast but business owners, let alone households, are starting to feel edgy as the long-awaited economic recovery looks more like a mirage.
Mr Luxon likes to tout his track record on turnaround jobs. He has 12 months before voters give his government a performance review.
