I have a mate to earns a (good) living cleaning up payroll messes arising from accounting for holidays. In fact I would guess there are hundreds, if not thousands of people employed in the field.
We are not special: this problem is faced all over the post-colonial world. Billions of dollars of pain, not only the cost of fixing it but the businesses who have paid the wrong amount, the employees who didn't notice one way or the other and have either missed out or find themselves in debt. It's a compliance mess.
Our holiday system arises from Christian tradition. Our main holidays are at the wrong time of year and for reasons arising from mythology. So why has nobody grasped the nettle? Political cowardice, and the fear that once a chink appears, the big bad bosses will take advantage.
Of course they will, which is why it is so important to get it right. And that won't happen when it's an overly-complex shitfest.
So here are the beginnings of my prescription.
- Abolish all statutory holidays (especially the provincial ones that arise from when the British were thinking administering our country as counties FFS).
- Except Waitangi day and ANZAC day (see more below).
- Grant an additional 10 days statutory annual leave.
- Establish cultural holiday calendars for any religion that can show more than (say) 5,000 members. Meaning that it can accommodate sub-groups of Christianity, Islam etc.
- The cultural calendars may include Waitangi day and ANZAC day.
- After employment (casual, part or full time, permanent or otherwise) employees select a calendar that contains 'official' leave days for that denomination. They may choose to select no calendar, in which case the calendar only includes Waitangi day and ANZAC day.
- A default, non-denominational calendar is available that includes New Years (2 days - bless the Scots), Waitangi and ANZAC days.
- Nomination may not be requested prior to employment. It cannot be contracted to be a certain calendar, and it can only be changed on anniversary of employment.
- Employers cannot deny leave requests for those official days as selected by the employee. This is so that extended families etc. who rely on days defined well in advance to get together can still do so.
- Penalty rules only apply to employees opting to work on one of their nominated holidays. This is entirely voluntary. If they have selected a calendar that does not include Waitangi Day or ANZAC day these are not holidays for them.
- Employers are permitted to mandate up to an additional 5 days per year when leave days must be taken that may vary in addition to the cultural calendar. This is to enable business wide maintenance / quiet period shutdowns etc.
- If the employer chooses to operate such a calendar, it may not include ANZAC day and Waitangi day.
- Abolish by law public holiday surcharging, along with all the archaic rules about when businesses must close.
- This includes closing rules that apply to Waitangi Day and ANZAC day. We do not force people to vote, fight or pray, so we should not force them to commemorate. This is a bit like the compulsory voting argument.
- As a transition mechanism, employers have the right to have current entitlements independently priced, and then pay out any historical obligations over the first two years following introduction.
I'm of Christianity, I know Andrew Cushen and have a different lens. I don't want to force Easter or Christmas on anyone,but yet behold why do we even have these holidays. They are Christian holidays including Christ - Mass or we might say Christmas. If NZ decides these holidays are not for us, I'm good and let the people speak.....these shall not be holidays if the people say No!
Account Manager at OSS Group
1 个月Never happen - too practical; makes too much sense. Plus, the retailers would go bonkers (& broke) if we tinkered with their holiday sales. Imagine a world without "Black Friday"!
Entrepreneur | Advisory Board | Independent Director | Investor | Business Consultant
1 个月I'm all for this Adam. I was having the same thought the other day about Stat holidays, what's the point, why are people forced to take them and why should you pay surcharges on them... Reducing the amount of specified days people are mandated to have off which are inevitably then bookended my more days off which a large number all take at the same time may then help try to solve the NZ productivity issue - as there would be a more consistent number of people working throughout the year.
at System Design & Communication Services
1 个月Other issue I see needs some work is that adding 10-days to leave means you could potentially take 5 or 6 weeks off in one block, which would be a massive continuity problem in some businesses. Do you need some control over max. continuous leave duration. I think it could be handled in employment contracts, but needs some thought.
at System Design & Communication Services
1 个月Matariki! Cultural Choice or important National day of recognition and standing with the indigenous people? Or are you hoping that people voting with their nominated calendars will give us some defacto data on what people really think (arguably more accurately than collecting submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill ...)?