Wood Michael; Dean JacquiHOLIDAYS (INCREASING SICK LEAVE) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): I present a legislative statement on the Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill.Legislative statement published under the authority of the HouseHon MICHAEL WOOD: I move That the Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 6 April 2021.At the end of what some of us termed the year of COVID" we have learnt many things and one of the things that we have learnt is the importance of people who are sick staying at home to look after themselves and to not spread infection to others. COVID has been a reminder to us in terms of dealing with a pandemic but more generally looking after the health and wellbeing of our people that people need time off work when they are unwell. It is important for their own health and their own wellbeing. It's important for the health and wellbeing of their colleagues who we do not want to become sick through the risk of infection. It is important for businesses who want to have healthy and well-engaged and productive workforces and it's important in a broader sense in terms of managing the increased risk in our country and around the world of infections such as COVID-19 which can have system-wide impacts on our economy. And what has become clear to the Government and to many people across New Zealand this year is that our current statutory minimum entitlement of five days sick leave per year does not satisfy those requirements and does not satisfy our ambition to ensure that the health and wellbeing of people and the risk of spreading infection is managed well.I note that this is a realisation that many others have come to. Many businesses in New Zealand currently provide more than the statutory minimum for sick leave in recognition of these factors. Many of the countries with whom we compare ourselves currently provide a higher statutory minimum for sick leave. Australia for example provides 10 days' sick leave per year for workers which is what has been proposed by the Government in this bill. I was very pleased that the Labour Party manifesto that was taken to the New Zealand electorate this year made a very clear commitment to address this issue with some urgency and that is what we are doing in the first sitting week of the House this year. As I said many businesses in New Zealand do currently provide 10 days' sick leave or more per year. One of the things that I think is a relevant factor for the House to consider as this bill goes through is the equity impacts of our current system because workers who are most reliant on the statutory minimums tend to be workers in the most vulnerable sectors tend to be workers with less agency and bargaining power in their workplaces and tend to be workers who are going to be less able to negotiate to have additional sick leave if that is needed. So we have a situation in New Zealand where many workers—the estimate is around about half of all workers—do have 10 days of sick leave or more per year. But the workers who potentially need it the most—workers who particularly are liable to have children and other dependents for whom they may need to access that sick leave as well—are the workers who tend to rely on the statutory minimum of five days per year. If we think about the people in our lives who might have children who might have dependents who might be more vulnerable in various ways pretty quickly you can see how that statutory minimum of five days per year may be used up. And that's just in ordinary times let alone those periods of time when we are strongly advising people from a public health perspective to be cautious and to stay at home if they are unwell with symptoms that may be related to COVID. I think one thing that this bill and this issue have brought out is a need for the cultural mind-set in New Zealand workplaces to change. Indeed I think it is changing. I think for a long time we've sort of had this attitude—and I've been as guilty as many other people—of toughing it out of saying "Oh well it's just a bit of a cold. I'm not feeling all that well but I'll go in anyway." We do need to move past that. We've learnt this year that there can be serious public health impacts if we don't move past that. We've learnt this year that there can be productivity impacts if we don't move past that. We've learnt that there are serious public health risks for the whole country if we don't move past that attitude. More broadly my vision as Minister in this portfolio and the vision of the Government is that we move past that view of workplace relations where we say the best thing and the only thing we should be doing is to be minimising upfront costs. Actually we've got a much higher level of ambition for workplaces in New Zealand. It's about building workplaces that are fair that are safe and that are productive and moving on from that 1990s mind-set which says that you trade those things off against each other that the only way to be productive is to reduce the costs and reduce the investment in your workers down to the minimum possible level. Actually I believe that those attributes of workplaces that are fair safe and productive are mutually reinforcing that if we invest in workers if we treat them well if we ensure that through measures like this—for example they have adequate sick leave they have adequate annual leave they have a voice in the workplace—that is going to lead to more productive workplaces. A survey undertaken by Business New Zealand and Southern Cross Healthcare in 2018 found that a significant number of employers do already provide more than five days of sick leave per year in recognition of this. The same survey found that from 2012 to 2018 the proportion of enterprises with a clear policy stating that staff should not come into work when sick also increased significantly. Other research reveals that when workers are asked the question "Would you come into work if you are sick?" in 2012 49 percent of workers said yes they would. That reduced to 35 percent by 2018 and I dare say that at the end of 2020 more workers also recognise the need to stay at home when they are unwell. So I think there is a journey that is taking place across New Zealand workplaces that is reflected in the views of both employers and employees that it is incredibly important to ensure that there is adequate sick leave in place. And I've been very pleased this week to see a range of leaders from unions and business organisations also recognising this in their public comments about this issue. I referenced before the fact that this doesn't need to be a trade-off—that actually decent sick leave supporting employees to stay at home when they're not well actually can be a boon to productivity. It's a pretty simple equation really. If people are coming into work sick with illnesses that are easily spread—of course we think of COVID-19 this year but those other bugs that are always around: the common cold influenza and other easily transmissible conditions. If more people pick up those conditions because workers come into work when they are unwell that is a significant drag on the productivity of businesses in New Zealand and we do not want to see that happening. There's good evidence on this as well. Respondents to the 2015 American Working Conditions Survey who reported working while sick estimated that this reduced their productivity by around about 20 percent on average and that's not taking into account the other people for whom illnesses may have been passed on. The same study found that providing paid sick leave in the United States by employers could have saved between $630 million to $1.88 billion per year in absenteeism costs by preventing the spread of illnesses. This is a Government which has a balanced approach. We are committed to increasing sick leave to deal with the issues that I've covered. We're also committed to continuing to support businesses in what has been a difficult period due to the impacts of COVID19. The COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme has been an important component of this work and I'm currently having a good look at that scheme to make sure that it's providing the support to employers that they need during this period. And we have a range of other policies to support businesses as we navigate this period including interest-free small-business loans; obviously we've had the wage subsidy scheme; and the Government's ongoing programme to provide free business advice support to get online and tackling that issue of expensive merchant service fees. So this policy fits within a broader framework of making sure that we're providing good rights to employees we're improving productivity and we're supporting businesses through a challenging process. As part of that balanced approach we're also asking the select committee to have a good look at this bill to consider a range of other issues that have been raised by stakeholders in the consultation. We will be running a full select committee process and we've heard from businesses that a little bit of lead-in time for the implementation of this is important. So the implementation is proposed to take place two months after the legislation takes effect. This is a bill which responds to some of the challenges that have arisen in 2020 but addresses a more fundamental issue about making sure that we have workplaces that are fair safe and productive through the provision of decent sick leave for workers who need to stay at home when they are unwell. I commend it to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to."