Bradford Sue: Holidays Bill — First Reading 
Bradford Sue: Holidays Bill — First Reading 
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SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is really pleased to see the Holidays Bill finally on Parliament’s agenda today though we have one major caveat: we would have liked to see the bill entrench a minimum of 4 weeks’ paid holiday leave for all workers rather than the meagre 3 weeks put forward by the Minister in the new legislation. We think it is a real pity that Labour did not take the bull by the horns as it were and incorporate into this bill the intent of Matt Robson’s member’s bill which was to provide for 4 weeks’ leave. After all it is high time that all New Zealand workers including those on the lowest wages and working in the poorest conditions—those who are least likely to have been able to negotiate 4 weeks’ leave—had the benefit of 4 weeks’ holiday.  
I think most of us recognise that over the last 20 years those people who have been lucky enough to be in regular work have tended to work longer and longer hours and often in much less secure positions than in earlier times. Workers are feeling more stressed while at the same time having less time to spend relaxing with their family or friends. There is a lot of talk at present about the work-life balance and to us allowing all workers the privilege of 4 weeks’ leave a year would seem to be the minimum period in terms of people having enough time away from work to really recover and to spend quality time with their partners and children.  
On top of that I think we all realise that in this day and age many mothers as well as fathers are in the workforce making it even harder for parents to cover school holiday periods adequately. We talk a lot in this House about giving children a fair deal and about improving family relationships. Three weeks’ leave shared between two parents or held by one parent on his or her own is nowhere near to being enough time to allow that to happen and I hope that on those grounds alone United Future will see its way clear to support Green moves to add an extra week’s holiday leave to this bill. I am also hopeful that when Matt Robson’s bill comes back to the House Labour will find itself able to support it to the select committee as soon as possible so that everyone concerned with improving the holiday legislation can make submissions on both bills at the same time.  
During the process of getting the Employment Relations Bill through the House the Green Party was well aware that the whole matter of holidays was an area that needed tidying up. We know that since the passing of that Act a lot of work has been done by the Government employers and unions to try to reach some kind of agreement on modernising and improving the holiday legislation. Although the Green Party has not of course been part of that process it is good that at least some of the problems have been worked through already by the tripartite advisory committee prior to the bill being drafted. However how much consensus has been reached in practice will I am sure be shown in stark relief during the select committee proceedings.  
Apart from carrying out a badly needed overhaul of the current legislation which basically remains rooted in the 1940s this bill brings forward a number of clarifications and improvements that I am sure will be of benefit to both staff and employers. The Green Party is pleased that for example employees who work on public holidays will have to receive time-and-a-half and a day off in lieu that bereavement leave has been clearly separated from sick leave that sick leave can be accumulated as of right that clarity has been given to the status of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day and that guidance has been given on the holidays that are allowed to accrue and when that may occur.  
We also think that the provision of a clear methodology for calculating annual holiday pay in a wide range of circumstances will be of tremendous benefit to employers both large and small who have often struggled with the complexities of that in the past. The Green Party is well aware of the problems that small-business people and community organisations encounter when dealing with new workplace legislation. In this particular case I think the Government is paying attention to the problems that such employers face and once any problems in the detail are ironed out during the select committee process I feel confident that this bill will provide a clear and useful guide for employers in determining the application of holiday and leave entitlements. This bill will help to keep compliance costs down rather than the reverse of that.  
Apart from the fact that the bill allows for only 3 rather than 4 weeks’ leave there is one other area about which we have some concern at this early stage and that is around the question of sick leave. The bill does a good job in clarifying that all employees are entitled to a minimum of 5 days’ sick leave a year and that that sick leave is separate from bereavement or tangi leave. But what it has not done is to separate out what some of us call domestic leave which occurs when a worker takes time off work in order to care for a dependent family member who is sick or injured. One of the hardest things for two-parent families where both partners work and for sole-parent families where the caregiver works is what happens when a child becomes ill and needs care at home. In the old days it was assumed that one parent usually the mother would be at home with the child as a matter of course. Now with so many parents of dependent children working—often simply to ensure the family’s survival as much as for anything else—it has become a real nightmare for parents when children fall sick and have to stay at home.  
The Green Party would prefer to see a separation of domestic leave from both sick and bereavement leave with a separate minimum entitlement for all workers to whom it legitimately applies. We feel it is incumbent on all of us to face the realities of modern working life and not to pretend that we are still living in the 1950s. Employers benefit from greater productivity when staff are not stressed about having abandoned their children at home children benefit from having their mother or father with them in their hour of need and society as a whole benefits when we look after each other properly. After all that is what this bill is really all about. It is about bringing holiday and leave provisions for New Zealand workers into the modern age and dealing with the realities of working life in 2003 not 1943.  
It is almost inconceivable for some of us now looking back to realise it was only about 30 years ago that workers won 3 weeks’ annual leave up from 2 weeks. We need to make the same kind of leap again now. In years to come it will be just as inconceivable that we waited so long to allow all workers to have 4 weeks’ holiday a year as it was to some people in 1972 that we should allow all workers to have 3 weeks off a year. Society has changed hugely in that time. Women now make up nearly 50 percent of the workforce and as much as some conservatives would like it not to happen the vast proportion of us are working either by choice or by economic necessity and are in no hurry to rush back to a full-time life of childcare and housework.  
All workers deserve adequate holiday and other leave entitlements. I hope that both Labour and United Future will see their way clear not only to support the bill as far as it goes but also to amend it during the select committee process in order to provide for a much more reasonable 4 weeks’ leave for all. I also hope that we will see this bill passed in time for Christmas so that all workers will receive the benefit of clearer entitlements by the time 25 December 2003 rolls around.