Tisch Lindsay: Holidays Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Holidays Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman. I knew that if I stood for long enough I would get the call at some stage—that someone would notice. 
United Future members have not taken any notice of all the submissions that came in. The member over there said that it took a long time to eat an elephant. Well I can tell members that it will take years and years to eat the elephant that he talked about and he calls that progress. We on this side of the Chamber say that the comments made by the United Future party just do not stack up. When my colleague the Hon Roger Sowry asked how the relevant daily pay provision which is the essence of Part 1 could be justified the reply was that the Government was making some progress on it. 
I say to United Future members that they are doing business an absolute disservice by supporting the Government on this legislation. Businesses will be in for a very expensive Christmas. The Christmas and New Year holidays will be an expensive time for businesses. The Holidays Act states that some public holidays that fall on the weekend must be “Mondayised”—that is observed on the following Monday or Tuesday. In the summer of 2004-05 all four public holidays—that is Christmas Day Boxing Day New Year’s Day and the other New Year holiday—fall on the weekend. That means 7-day businesses will face increased wage and time-off provisions for a total of 8 days not 4 days. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You’re kidding! 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: No I am not kidding. That is what the relevant daily pay provision will do. There will be a build-up of all the overtime hours that people work and the allowances they are able to get for working in the build-up to the Christmas period—the festive season. For businesses the festive season means that they will be out of pocket. Business owners will get to the stage where they will say: “Why should I bother?”. We are already seeing it in the restaurant industry. Cafe owners are saying: “Why should I bother to open on a statutory holiday? It’s not worth it.” In fact some of them put a surcharge on a cup of cappuccino that is purchased on a statutory holiday. We go along to buy a cappuccino latte flat white or whatever and we find there is a surcharge. The owners say: “Well if we have to pay relevant daily pay to our workers if we open on a statutory holiday then we have to put a surcharge on to make it work.” 
What happened to the concept of “ordinary pay”? I am an ordinary person and I have a clear idea of “ordinary pay”. It is not a concept that should be devoid of meaning. “Ordinary pay” has been around for the last 50 years. What happened in terms of calculating staff holiday pay to paying staff 6 percent of the gross take? Remember those days? Workers were paid 6 percent of the gross take as holiday pay. It was very clear. There was nothing complicated about it. I did not have to work out in the months before what would happen with overtime or the allowances to be paid—meal allowances tool allowances travel allowances and all those allowances that are incorporated into what will be known as relevant daily pay. 
National members are really concerned about this measure because this is a step backwards. Members will recall that my colleague John Key noted that the new Holidays Act came in on April Fool’s Day. It came in on 1 April this year. National members said during the debate last year and at the beginning of this year that the legislation was a step backwards. We are a nation of small businesses—295000 small businesses employ fewer than five people—and the legislation will kick them. What will those businesses do? If they have to look at the bottom line it will be the workers the employees who ultimately will suffer.