Rachel Mackintosh said the overall impact of the changes would disproportionately impact jobs and industries where Pacific people are more likely to work. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
A New Zealand union executive warns proposed changes to employment leave laws could result in less pay for Pacific workers. However, the government says the changes are designed to make the system fairer.
First flagged by the government in June last year, the changes would mean annual and sick leave are accumulated based on hours worked.
Those receiving Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) payments would no longer gain leave off work as well.
E-Tu union national secretary Rachel Mackintosh told Pacific Waves the overall impact of the changes would disproportionately impact jobs and industries where Pacific people are more likely to work.
"The burdens and the reduction in leave entitlements fall disproportionately on lower paid people in less secure work, less predictable work. Those are the people who will lose out."
Mackintosh identified specific groups most likely be disadvantaged from details released on the proposed changes: part-time workers and workers in roles where over-time pay was significant portion of their income.
"Pacific workers are more likely to be doing work where there's overtime pay, so they will get less pay when they go on holiday. Pacific workers are more likely to be part time, so they will get less sick leave. So that's just a greater disadvantage," she said.
The government has rejected this. Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden said last week "simplicity" was at the heart of the new system.
"At the heart of all of this is simplicity, so that everybody knows what they are supposed to be paying and what they're supposed to be earning.
"We have attempted to keep equivalence to the status quo," she said.
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden Photo: Marika Khabazi
Van Velden said the new system - which is being progressed through the Employment Leave Bill - would make things easier for businesses.
"It can be that people are on extended medical leave for quite a long time and it's very unclear when they would be returning to work. At the same time, that employer is accruing a significant portion of annual leave.
"That person may be away from work out of circumstances that are not in their control and it's very horrible for people, [but] that employer is still accruing a leave liability that becomes quite expensive."
She also said changes to sick leave for part-time workers was more proportionate.
"If you work one day a week, you might need five days off, but you're only working one day anyway, so you only need that one day from your employer. We believe that this is proportionate, and fair for both the business and the employee."
Van Velden said she had received positive feedback from businesses.
"They believe it's fairer and I've also had some correspondence from people saying the move to 10 days sick leave for part-time employees was very difficult for them to stomach.
"It's just too much of a leave liability, so I do believe that this proportionate change will mean that there are more part-time job opportunities available from businesses, who couldn't previously stomach that additional leave balance."
However, Mackintosh said the government had gone too far in its attempt to streamline and simplify.
"The way work is performed is complex, and if you oversimplify the way you deal with work, then there are consequences for people. And one of the consequences here is that part-time workers will receive less entitlement than they currently have.
"The changes, the simplification, will fall more heavily on Pacific workers and other workers who tend to be in more insecure work. So that also includes Māori workers, older workers, younger workers, migrant workers, women workers."
The government's Employment Leave Bill was expected to pass before next year's election. It would replace the current Holidays Act.
Following that, all sectors would move to the new system within two years of the law being passed apart from schools, which would remain on the current system for five to ten years due to the length of time required to replace the sector's payroll system.
