[New Zealand] Public holidays and the unfairness of the Holidays Act

In New Zealand, there is a new official public holiday this year, Matariki, which brings the total number of annual public holidays to 12. However, a number of full-time workers completely miss out on up to seven public holidays in the country each year, NZ Herald reports.

An anomaly in the Holidays Act is the reason for those missed days. People working Monday to Friday are guaranteed all public holidays because even if the holiday falls on the weekend when they wouldn't ordinarily work, the public holiday is 'Mondayised'; it gets shifted to Monday. These workers are the fortunate ones.

It is less lucky for those who don't work weekdays. People who don't work Mondays, for example, are likely to miss out on more than five public holiday entitlements in 2022. This becomes a particular issue in industries like retail and hospitality, where it is common to work Tuesday to Saturday. In the restaurant industry, restaurants are often shut on Mondays, so none of the staff work.

Unite Union national secretary John Crocker said workers miss out on these holidays as a result of both legislative and societal changes. "If you look back in New Zealand's labour history, we were predominantly a Monday to Friday workforce," he said. 

It was rare to find a shop open at the weekend before the 1980s. In fact, it was illegal for most retailers to trade on Saturday or Sunday. It was only when the National government passed the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Act in 1980 that Saturday trading was permitted; despite campaigns against it from the Shop Employees union. 

In 1989, trading on Sundays was also made legal. However, even when people did work at the weekend, "penal rates were built in" Mr Crocker said, so they were compensated for missing out on public holidays. Those penal rates were later removed under the Employment Contracts Act of 1991.

In the 80s, Mr Crocker said, "those missing out were a minority". But now a growing workforce works outside the boundaries of the traditional working week. Statistics New Zealand's 2018 survey of working life reportedly found that two-thirds of employed people had worked at a non-standard time (hours worked outside of 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday) at least once in the past four weeks. 

The survey revealed that the most commonly worked non-standard time was during the day on Saturday. With that in mind, continuing to base public holidays on a Monday to Friday working week appears archaic.

Mr Crocker was on the Holidays Act Taskforce that reviewed that Holidays Act in 2019. He said one of the reasons the law doesn't account for non-traditional work weeks is that those who create legislation tend to be weekday workers themselves and are therefore less likely to recognise anomalies in how weekend workers are treated. 

In addition, the public holiday issue reflects the lack of political representation for people who work non-standard hours.

Mr Crocker says Unite Union will lobby for a change to the legislation to ensure all employees benefit from a minimum number of public holidays or receive days in lieu based on the number of days per week they work.

He believes that change is imperative. "New Zealand society has changed and we are more of a 24/7, seven days a week workforce now," he said. "The legislation should reflect that".

The current discrepancy is also an equity issue, Mr Crocker said. Young, female, and Māori and Pacific workers are more likely to be short-changed by the current rules around public holidays.

He added that although some industries have been able to negotiate better public holiday arrangements by unionising, a change of legislation is a necessity to protect the most vulnerable workers who cannot unionise.

David Williamson - senior hospitality and tourism lecturer at AUT - also said that change is "absolutely needed", reportedly arguing that hospitality and tourism is too often overlooked when employment legislation is written. He is concerned that even with a change of legislation, a lack of enforcement could potentially mean employers will fail to comply with the new law.

In the years following reports of widespread non-compliance with the Holidays Act, many larger employers resolved the issue through worker remediation. However huge parts of the workforce still haven't, Mr Crocker notes, calling that a bad sign for any future changes to the Act.

Mr Williamson believes that improving holiday entitlements would be an easy win for the hospitality industry, which is currently suffering from significant worker shortages and high employee turnover. Giving hospitality workers the same number of holidays as Monday-to-Friday workers would encourage more people into the industry, he said.

Under the current system, too many members of New Zealand’s workforce are missing out on holidays the rest of the country takes for granted. As the introduction of the Matariki holiday this year shows, the government has the power to make people’s working lives a little better. There should be no reason why they cannot also be made fairer.

Source: NZ Herald

(Quotes via original reporting)

In New Zealand, there is a new official public holiday this year, Matariki, which brings the total number of annual public holidays to 12. However, a number of full-time workers completely miss out on up to seven public holidays in the country each year, NZ Herald reports.

An anomaly in the Holidays Act is the reason for those missed days. People working Monday to Friday are guaranteed all public holidays because even if the holiday falls on the weekend when they wouldn't ordinarily work, the public holiday is 'Mondayised'; it gets shifted to Monday. These workers are the fortunate ones.

It is less lucky for those who don't work weekdays. People who don't work Mondays, for example, are likely to miss out on more than five public holiday entitlements in 2022. This becomes a particular issue in industries like retail and hospitality, where it is common to work Tuesday to Saturday. In the restaurant industry, restaurants are often shut on Mondays, so none of the staff work.

Unite Union national secretary John Crocker said workers miss out on these holidays as a result of both legislative and societal changes. "If you look back in New Zealand's labour history, we were predominantly a Monday to Friday workforce," he said. 

It was rare to find a shop open at the weekend before the 1980s. In fact, it was illegal for most retailers to trade on Saturday or Sunday. It was only when the National government passed the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Act in 1980 that Saturday trading was permitted; despite campaigns against it from the Shop Employees union. 

In 1989, trading on Sundays was also made legal. However, even when people did work at the weekend, "penal rates were built in" Mr Crocker said, so they were compensated for missing out on public holidays. Those penal rates were later removed under the Employment Contracts Act of 1991.

In the 80s, Mr Crocker said, "those missing out were a minority". But now a growing workforce works outside the boundaries of the traditional working week. Statistics New Zealand's 2018 survey of working life reportedly found that two-thirds of employed people had worked at a non-standard time (hours worked outside of 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday) at least once in the past four weeks. 

The survey revealed that the most commonly worked non-standard time was during the day on Saturday. With that in mind, continuing to base public holidays on a Monday to Friday working week appears archaic.

Mr Crocker was on the Holidays Act Taskforce that reviewed that Holidays Act in 2019. He said one of the reasons the law doesn't account for non-traditional work weeks is that those who create legislation tend to be weekday workers themselves and are therefore less likely to recognise anomalies in how weekend workers are treated. 

In addition, the public holiday issue reflects the lack of political representation for people who work non-standard hours.

Mr Crocker says Unite Union will lobby for a change to the legislation to ensure all employees benefit from a minimum number of public holidays or receive days in lieu based on the number of days per week they work.

He believes that change is imperative. "New Zealand society has changed and we are more of a 24/7, seven days a week workforce now," he said. "The legislation should reflect that".

The current discrepancy is also an equity issue, Mr Crocker said. Young, female, and Māori and Pacific workers are more likely to be short-changed by the current rules around public holidays.

He added that although some industries have been able to negotiate better public holiday arrangements by unionising, a change of legislation is a necessity to protect the most vulnerable workers who cannot unionise.

David Williamson - senior hospitality and tourism lecturer at AUT - also said that change is "absolutely needed", reportedly arguing that hospitality and tourism is too often overlooked when employment legislation is written. He is concerned that even with a change of legislation, a lack of enforcement could potentially mean employers will fail to comply with the new law.

In the years following reports of widespread non-compliance with the Holidays Act, many larger employers resolved the issue through worker remediation. However huge parts of the workforce still haven't, Mr Crocker notes, calling that a bad sign for any future changes to the Act.

Mr Williamson believes that improving holiday entitlements would be an easy win for the hospitality industry, which is currently suffering from significant worker shortages and high employee turnover. Giving hospitality workers the same number of holidays as Monday-to-Friday workers would encourage more people into the industry, he said.

Under the current system, too many members of New Zealand’s workforce are missing out on holidays the rest of the country takes for granted. As the introduction of the Matariki holiday this year shows, the government has the power to make people’s working lives a little better. There should be no reason why they cannot also be made fairer.

Source: NZ Herald

(Quotes via original reporting)