Bradford Sue: Holidays Bill — Second Reading 
Bradford Sue: Holidays Bill — Second Reading 
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SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 It is great to see the Holidays Bill back before the House—in time I hope to be passed by Christmas this year. In the long run this bill will be one of the best Christmas presents the workers of New Zealand could hope for. Although the Green Party is disappointed that the introduction of 4 weeks’ annual leave for all workers is being postponed until 1 April 2007 at least this bill contains a statutory promise that I hope any Government post the 2005 election will keep. I cannot imagine that even National ACT or United Future will want to go out on the hustings and tell ordinary people to their faces that they will repeal this bill should they become Government in 2005—a very unlikely outcome I am sure. 
Although I do not like the way the implementation of 4 weeks’ leave has been delayed in a way that looks as if it could perhaps be an inducement to vote in a certain way at the same time any party or candidate who professes to care about the welfare of ordinary New Zealanders and their families must surely support 4 weeks’ leave for all. After all it is around 30 years since the statutory entitlement for 3 weeks’ leave was introduced. That is a long time and our society and culture have changed hugely since then. Longer hours of work and much more equitable participation in the workforce by women mean that individuals and families need every day’s leave they can get just to help them survive. 
Many workers on higher incomes and in jobs and professions that have comparatively stronger bargaining power have already negotiated themselves 4 or even 5 or more weeks’ leave. It is a grave injustice that those who are the lowest paid and who are often in the least personally rewarding of occupations are those who are also the least likely to get anything over the 3-week minimum. All workers are human beings with human needs for rest relaxation recuperation and time with children partners family and friends. Our children partners family and friends need time with us too. The cost of an extra week’s leave is small when compared with the beneficial effects for so many and with the fact that overall employees’ motivation performance and productivity will all be substantially enhanced. 
On top of that the 4 weeks’ leave being introduced here is already being offered by many other countries. Every single country in the European Union must by law provide a minimum of 4 weeks’ annual holiday and while some in this Parliament might find it hard to believe in Austria Denmark Finland France and Spain all workers have a statutory minimum of 6 weeks’ holiday. In our near neighbour Australia workers have had the privilege of 4 weeks’ leave since around the time that New Zealand moved to 3 weeks’ showing once again just how slow we are at times to make progress—despite priding ourselves so often on our supposedly enlightened attitudes to social change. 
I would like to acknowledge the work of my colleague Matt Robson of the Engineers Union and of other unions and individuals who have led the push over the last year for 4 weeks’ leave for all. Mr Robson’s member’s bill for 4 weeks’ annual leave has been incorporated into this one and even though the Progressives and Greens share a deep disappointment that implementation is so far away at least we are making a major step forward with this legislative commitment to 4 weeks’ leave in 2007. 
Beyond the 4 weeks’ issue of course a number of other significant improvements to holiday law are included in the bill we are considering this afternoon. The overall goal of the bill is to make holiday requirements easier for both employers and employees to understand and work with. I am sure that despite the usual flurry of objections that featured in the committee hearings in practice many employers—both large and small—will appreciate the clarity this bill will bring once it becomes law. Among other things we are particularly pleased that it is now very clear that all employees must receive 11 public holidays annually that provisions for payment and time in lieu for working on public holidays are established and simplified that arrangements around the payment of holiday entitlements are being made both more transparent and easier to understand that clear minimum entitlements to sick and bereavement leave are established and that casual staff who work in an ongoing situation will also be entitled to bereavement leave. 
I guess our major disappointment with this part of the bill—apart from the fact that it will take 4 years until 4 weeks’ leave will begin to take effect—is that during the select committee process the Government decided to retrogressively amend the clause that originally provided that an employer could request proof of entitlement for sick leave after people had been away from work for 5 days. Labour has chosen instead to reduce the period before proof is required to 3 days. That means workers will end up at times—depending on the nature of their employers—having to endure the inconvenience and cost of going to a doctor for a medical certificate when there is no other reason for seeking medical attention. The Green Party will be moving an amendment during the Committee stage of this bill to return the relevant time period in the clause from 3 to its original 5 days. 
Another area of concern for us in this bill has been around the way sick and domestic leave have been brought together as one. It is great that all workers have a minimum of 5 days’ sick leave a year but for those employees with dependants that leave can get eaten away very quickly when children or other dependants become ill to the extent the wage earner has to stay home and look after them. That is a very real situation for the hundreds of thousands of workers who have young children and/or sick or elderly relatives to care for. We believe it would have been preferable to separate sick leave from domestic leave so that a distinct domestic leave entitlement existed for those who genuinely needed it. However I acknowledge that that was something not strongly pushed by submitters and it was certainly not endorsed by Government members. I hope I live to see the day when we are a humane enough society to recognise the needs not just of the staff members themselves but also of their dependants. Sadly that day is not here yet. 
Overall however this is a welcome and important bill which will benefit not just workers and their families but also employers through increased productivity and society at large through the benefits of greater work/life balance and happiness all around. People in those echelons of society who take 4 5 6 or more weeks’ leave for granted often seem to forget—if they ever knew—what it is like to be able to have time off for only half the summer school holidays with nothing up the sleeve for the rest of the year. I am glad that Labour the Progressives and the Green Party have been able to work together to achieve at least 1 extra week’s leave for all workers by 2007 and that through other provisions in the Holidays Bill there will now be a lot more certainty for both employers and staff when it comes to dealing with the complexity of leave entitlements in all their forms.