Wood MichaelHOLIDAYS (INCREASING SICK LEAVE) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): I present a legislative statement on the Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill. DEPUTY SPEAKER: That statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website. Hon MICHAEL WOOD: I move That the Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. I am very pleased this evening that with the third reading of this bill and God willing its passage before the end of the night this Government will be delivering on one of its election commitments. That is the commitment to make sure that workers across New Zealand have a decent and adequate entitlement for sick leave for themselves and their dependants of 10 days per year. Having come out of the year of COVID one of our learnings has been about the need to make sure that people have adequate sick leave and I'll speak shortly about why that is so important. I want to start off though with a brief comment about why this bill is so important in the context of the Government's broader agenda for workplace relations. It is my vision as Minister—and this Government's policy—to achieve workplaces that are fair safe and productive and to build up a framework across our workplaces in which those principles are mutually reinforcing. We don't see that those things conflict against each other as has sometimes been the case in our past. We believe workplaces in which workers are treated fairly will be workplaces in which it's safer for everyone and will be workplaces in which it is more productive as well. This piece of legislation fits very well within that context because it's about recognising the fundamental needs of workers to look after their health and recognising that there are benefits in that for the broader workplace and for the business that is concerned as well. Over the course of this debate we have seen the differences in approach between the two sides of the House and this came out most forwardly in the committee stage of the debate yesterday when we heard from the National Party a very negative backwards-looking low-road approach to employment relations. We were told that with the passage of this bill workers en masse apparently will look to rip off the system and take sick leave up to the maximum regardless of whether they are sick or not. We were told that employers en masse apparently will discriminate against women and people with dependants if this is passed. Well on this side of the House—I said this yesterday and I'll repeat it again—we have a much more optimistic view of the way that employees and employers treat each other in this country and our ability to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and to have productive workplaces all at once. As I say we don't see those things as being in contradiction.In fact yesterday we saw from the National Party a Supplementary Order Paper that would have actually cut—actually cut—from the current legal minimum of five days the sick leave for part-time workers who have less than 2½ days of work per week. What kind of thinking leads you to that after a year of a global pandemic like COVID-19? I can't even imagine.But for us as I said this is about making sure that we have adequate sick leave entitlements for the benefit of workers and of workplaces and for the broader public health interest. For workers this is simple and this is so important that it bears repeating: this is about people being treated with sufficient dignity that when they are unwell that when they are sick they are able to take sufficient time to get well again. That they don't feel forced into coming into work. That they don't feel pressured into coming to work. They are able to stay at home and recover for their health and their wellbeing. I will go on to talk about some of the broader benefits and the productivity enhancements that we believe do flow from this bill but at its core there is something here about how we treat people. I believe that people who are sick should be afforded the ability to be at home within reason so that they can recover.This is also about the broader workplace. It's about the fact that again after the year of COVID—how many times do we have to learn and relearn this? We don't want people who are sick coming in to work not just for their own benefit but for the health and wellbeing of the people that they work with. People who are sick spread illness to others in the workplace. I reflected yesterday in the debate that we are beginning to build up evidence on record that over the course of the year many workplaces have had reduced sick leave need because people have been staying at home. It's very simple: this is about looking after the worker who is sick and their workmates and more broadly this is also about the public health interest. In an era in which we are acutely aware of how communicable diseases can spread it is surely more important than ever that we move past that old-time culture of just toughing it out because if we continue with that then we put ourselves at risk not just at the workplace level but at the level of our communities and our society of the spread of illnesses like COVID and other illnesses. We cannot possibly want that. The long-term implications of that not just for individuals and community and their wellbeing but for our economy are profound. So this is so important that people do have the right to adequate sick leave. I said in my first reading speech that that culture of toughing it out is quite embedded. It's certainly something that I've done and I'm pretty sure that other members around the Chamber have done but increasingly I think New Zealanders and employers recognise that it is not the way ahead. I've been encouraged over the course of this debate by how many people recognise the value of this policy. Of course there have been people who have a different view. That happens whenever we have a change. But I recognise people like Michael Barnett from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce who said that this is not just better for employees' wellbeing but it's better for the workplace as well. He encouraged opponents of the bill to look at the long term.There was an excellent comment from Jane Kennelly a director at Frog Recruitment and she spoke about her experience in her business of offering not just 10 days' sick leave per year but unlimited sick leave flexible sick leave. She said when she offered unlimited sick leave in her business people thought staff would take leave willy-nilly. But quite the opposite happened. We were well below the average just because there was an element of trust." and that's right—isn't that the thing? When we treat people with trust and respect and when people don't have to worry about whether they'll have enough sick leave to get through the next illness that they have or their dependants have you can build more trusting relationships between the employees and the employers and that's where we want to take it. The Government will be there as well. We've stepped up over the last year to support employers and employees with the COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme and the COVID-19 short-term absence payments. We're not leaving employers and employees to their own devices; we will be there to support them where necessary but let's make sure that fundamentally people have adequate sick leave in the first instance.I'd like to thank everyone who has participated in the passage of this bill so far. To those members of the select committee who ran a very good select committee process; to the officials who have worked hard over the last six months on their piece of legislation noting that this was one of the first pieces of legislation introduced by the new Government when we came into office at the end of last year; and to all of those people who have submitted and given their views on this bill whatever those views were I respect and thank them for that contribution.The bill that the select committee sent back to the House and that we are considering today is a simple bill. It increases the entitlement from five days to 10 days per year for employees. It's a bill in which we have tried to retain a balance. We have listened to the voices of employers who have asked us to make sure that any changes that we do make are able to be implemented with a reasonable time frame. Therefore the commencement of this bill will occur two months after Royal assent and the increases to entitlement will occur on employee anniversary dates—not all at once in one go—and that will enable payroll systems to adapt to the system. So we have tried to take a balanced approach to make sure that these provisions can be efficiently implemented.As I move towards closing my comments this evening I return to that broader vision that we have for workplaces in New Zealand—that is workplaces in which we have fairness safety and productivity and in which those things rest upon one another and reinforce one another. The Government has a much broader agenda that I am very proud of and that we will be making progress on over the course of this term. We've announced fair pay agreements recently. We'll be moving forward with making sure we have an adequate health and safety system to keep people safe in the workplace. But this reform early on in our term speaks to those values. It speaks to valuing people making sure that they have the dignity to be well in their own lives. It speaks to looking after other people in the workplace. It speaks to the broader benefits of making sure that illness doesn't spread reducing productivity and causing carnage potentially across our communities and our societies.I am very proud that our Government so early in our term has kept our commitment to follow through on this piece of legislation. It speaks to our values. It speaks to our vision with the employment relations system. It speaks to some of the lessons that we have learnt over the course of COVID-19. I thank everyone for their contribution to this important piece of legislation and this evening I am very happy as a promise kept to commend this bill to the House."