Source: Radio New Zealand
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Part-time and shift workers have told MPs they’ll lose money under proposed leave entitlement changes – but the minister in charge says that’s unavoidable.
On Wednesday morning, the Education and Workforce Select Committee heard submissions on the Employment Leave Bill, which would see both annual and sick leave accumulated based on hours worked.
A number of Public Service Association members told the committee how the changes would affect them.
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden said she tried to create a law benefiting everyone but was advised it would make things worse – so she landed on a bill that would see employees worse off in some cases, and employers worse off in others.
Youth inpatient facility charge nurse Mary Becker said she’d be taking a $2700 annual pay cut because her shift and overtime allowances would not be factored into leave payments.
That meant she would have to consider whether she could afford to take leave “which doesn’t bode well, given the high rates of burnout in my field”, she said.
“It’s because we work such long and unsocial hours that the changes in this bill would decrease our access to leave and pay on leave.
“To me, this just isn’t fair.”
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. Supplied
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said the union would not give up fighting against the bill which she said would make workers’ lives “materially worse”.
“We really hope … that the report back from this select committee carefully considers in a granular way what this bill would mean for workers and declines to make the changes that will make working people’s lives worse.”
The meeting got heated when National MP Carl Bates stated some of them would have benefited from the government’s tax cuts.
“Just want to know if the union supported that direct support to these workers,” he said.
Fitzsimons replied: “Absolutely not, and it is a pretty sad day … if you are comparing your tax cuts with something you’re now proposing to take away, and I’m very surprised by that position, is that the official position? Because that is bizarre,” she said.
As the pair talked over each other, Bates said he was trying to ask whether the union was consistent in its support for workers.
Bill strikes a balance for workers and employers – Minister
Van Velden explained the intent of the bill was to make the rules easier to apply, give both workers and employers more certainty about entitlements, and reduce mistakes which had led to “widespread non-compliance and costly remediation processes”.
Labour MP Camilla Belich put the PSA members’ submissions to van Velden, asking how she could justify a bill that meant workers would lose money during a cost-of-living crisis.
Van Velden said she had initially tried to draft a bill ensuring no worker was worse off.
“The feedback that I had back on that draft was, ‘stop, this is worse than the current law’,” she said.
“The drafting to ensure that in no situation any worker could be worse off at any circumstance led to such technically difficult and impossible to implement clauses … for payroll systems themselves, many payroll providers said it would be worse for them.”
She acknowledged there would be “edge cases” and some people would see a difference in pay – but said in the transition to the new system, employers would “find other ways” to ensure their staff were not worse off.
Van Velden expected collective agreements would change to ensure that, too.
Ensuring no worker was worse off would mean that employers would suffer because the money had to come from somewhere, she said.
Van Velden believed a balance had been struck.
“Within the technical drafting that we’ve done, there will be some cases where an employer would be worse off, and in some cases where an employee will be worse off,” she said.
“It is not the case that there has been a win for business or a win for workers.”
She named a number of benefits for workers, including accruing leave from day one, and the opportunity to cash up 25 percent of leave in a year.
The bill would be a major change requiring a careful transition, the minister said.
Employers and payroll providers would have two years to prepare once the bill was passed.
Van Velden said she had encouraged stakeholders to point out technical issues, edge cases or unintended effects so they could be addressed before the bill becomes law.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
