It looks as though any changes to the act will be 2 or 3 years away. Any historical underpayments will still need to be paid and company audits will continue – although how the data is interpreted appears to be different depending on the person performing the audit…
Source: http://www.mbie.govt.nz
A Holidays Act Working Group has been established by the Government to carry out a full review of the Holidays Act. The Group will be made up of employer, worker and government representatives and will be chaired by Gordon Anderson, a law professor at Victoria University with extensive experience in employment law.
The review has been commissioned by Government following a joint request from unions and employers. The Working Group will focus particularly on the provisions of, and payment for, holidays and leave entitlements, but it may also consider any other issues that arise in the course of its work. The Group will report back within 12 months with recommendations to government on options for a clear and transparent set of rules for providing entitlements to, and payment for, holidays and leave that can be readily implemented in a payroll system and is applicable to an increasingly diverse range of working and pay arrangements.
The review will not consider the issue of remediation of historical underpayments of holiday and leave pay. A new regime is likely to be two to three years away. In the meantime, employers retain an obligation to remediate workers for historical underpayments of holiday and leave pay, and to pay employees correctly. The Labour Inspectorate will continue to support employers to remediate employees for historical underpayments (such as through their recently published practice note on estimating arrears), and will continue with their programme of audits and investigations. More information is available on the employment.govt.nz website.
Holidays Act Issues Paper released
The Holidays Act Taskforce is seeking your feedback on an Issues Paper.
The Holidays Act Taskforce, established in May 2018 to review the Holidays Act and recommend changes, has released an Issues Paper. This sets out its understanding of the key issues employers, employees and payroll providers face in trying to implement the Act. The Taskforce, which includes employer, employee and government representatives, would welcome input from key stakeholders about:
- whether the issues set out in the Issues Paper are described accurately?
- whether you have experienced any other issues working with the Act that are not captured in the Issues Paper? If so, what are these issues?
- any suggestions or proposals for change.
The Taskforce is seeking feedback by 12 October 2018. The feedback received on the Issues Paper will help inform the Taskforce as it develops solutions.
