Neil Sands
NZCTU boss Rachel Mackintosh has slammed the government’s decision to scrap planned reforms to the Holidays Act and start again, accusing it of politicising the issue in search of a quick fix.
Mackintosh was also critical of business bodies such as the Employers & Manufacturers Association and Business NZ for enthusiastically backing the government’s approach, despite previous commitments to finding a consensus solution.
“My concern is that this is going be bad for working people, who will lose out on pay that they’re entitled to,” Macintosh, the peak union body’s acting president, told LawNews.
“And from our point of view, it’s just a waste of all the work that’s been done on this.”
The Holidays Act 2003 has faced flak from all sides of politics for decades over complex and costly compliance procedures that have resulted in workers being underpaid by billions of dollars during the decades since its introduction.
A reform push was launched under the Labour administration in 2018, when the government, unions and employers agreed to seek a “tripartite consensus” on the vexed issues plaguing the Act.
The core aims of the reform were to find long-term solutions that were acceptable to all which did not erode workers’ entitlements.
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden said on Friday that consensus was no long a priority for the government, as it limited the policy options available, with the focus instead shifting to simplifying the Holidays Act.
With that in mind, van Velden said officials were going “back to the drawing board” on reforming the Act, although changes are still expected to be in place by the end of the government’s current term.
A major criticism of the current legislation is that it was drafted to cater for employees who primarily work 9-to-5 and does not reflect the intricacies of modern workplaces, such as part-time employees, shift-work, flexible working and legacy allowances.
‘Alarm bells’
Mackintosh said the simple fact was that there is no simple solution, warning that trying to impose one would be “dangerous” for workers.
“Work is complex, which is what the last working party [formed in 2018] worked out,” she said. The various different ways that people work, the kind of hours people work –which are generally to suit the employers because they’re trying to make profit – they’re complex.
“So, you can’t completely simplify holidays legislation or it will just be completely unjust and it won’t take account of reality. If you are taking the next step without taking the interests of workers into account, then it’s just really dangerous.”
Mackintosh said van Velden had locked unions out of consultations over the reforms.
“The minister has consulted experts – we don’t know who they are – and employers, but not unions, not the millions of people who actually take leave in this country and who have been underpaid for in the past,” she said.
“That she’s not consulting them sets off real alarm bells that whatever comes out of this will be designed to suit employers and there will be no guarantee that current entitlements are preserved.”
Mackintosh warned that scrapping the consensus model politicised Holidays Act reform, meaning unions will seek to repeal any measures they feel are unfair when there is eventually a change of government – exactly the type of back-and-forth the original reform program sought to avoid.
“That was why we agreed to the to a process that included business, because we want something that lasts,” she said.
“You know, [van Velden] is talking about clarity and certainty and various other things, but actually there won’t be certainty.”
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