UPDATE ON NZPPA MEETING WITH THE MINISTER ON FIXING THE HOLIDAYS ACT

I met with the Minister of Workplace Relations & Safety last week to discuss the issues with the Holidays Act (Payrolls Nightmare).

It was a good meeting, and the Minister understood the overall issues with the act.

I covered the issues stated in our letter dated 1 Feb 2024: https://www.nzppa.co.nz/blog/open-letter-we-need-your-help-to-resolve-the-issues-with-the-holidays-act/.? ????

The Minister put forward an idea on changing the Holidays Act to an hours-based accrual system. However, they plan to publish a discussion paper, and no decisions have been made.

Just on this, this is what is stated on the Act Party website (it does not make sense with what is happening with the act):

• Introduce an hours-based accrual system for annual leave, which will make it significantly easier to calculate entitlements and removes the need for complicated pay-as-you-go provisions (https://www.act.org.nz/small-business)

When she talked about accrual, I suggested that if they were going down that path, they would need a washup activity in payroll at the end of the year (like an IRD EOY assessment) for any issues from changing hours, etc., so it was easy for small businesses, employees, and payroll, providing ongoing certainty, etc.

I also raised the point that if they move to a new act, they must create a transitional calculation to cover the old act and any issues found (liability period) so employers are not dragged back once a new act is in play; we must move forward.

So where to next?

• The government's plan for the next three months, provided today, 2 April 2024: Point 17 states: Take decisions on reform of the Holidays Act.

So, it sounds like they are serious. I just hope that payroll is included (NZPPA will fight for this) and that any legislation is not rushed (rushed legislation is poor legislation). When you are talking about the Holidays Act, we must spend time understanding all the flow-on effects, especially in payroll, so we do not create a new nightmare going forward.

? NZPPA supporting NZ Payroll since 2007!