Sick leave changes: National’s ‘vandalism’ of workers’ rights is unprecedented - but it’s not too late - Shane Te Pou

THREE KEY FACTS:

• The Government has proposed changes to sick leave rules, which could mean that part-time workers are entitled to less.
• Currently every worker, including part-time and casual employees, is entitled to 10 days sick leave a year, if they have been working for their employer consistently for six months and have worked an average 10 hours a week, and at least one hour in every week or 40 hours in every month.
• Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden has unveiled plans to amend the Holidays Act (2003) - currently, part-time workers are eligible for 10 days of sick leave but under the proposed amendments this would change.

Shane Te Pou (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a commentator, blogger and former Labour Party activist.

OPINION

Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis and the National Party aren’t having the best of times. The centrepiece of their election campaign, tax cuts, sank without a trace in the Budget. They have been hugely overshadowed by their failure to deliver much-promised cancer drugs. There doesn’t appear to be much else in the bag in terms of goodies for the public – only more cuts and higher levels of unemployment in the future.

With the polls heading in the wrong direction, you would think that now is not the time for National to be getting 522,000 Kiwis offside. Sadly for them, Act doesn’t care. That can be the only explanation as to why Brooke van Velden chose now as the best time to release details of a plan to remove sick leave and holiday leave entitlements from part-time workers. This is despite public promises made by National in Opposition not to do this, and having never been mentioned in any coalition agreement.

The number of Kiwis who work part-time is 522,000 – 70 per cent of them are female. We know that young people, those with disabilities, Māori and Pasifika are all overrepresented in part-time work. With unemployment due to rise by 47,000 on this Government’s watch, part-time work will likely become more common as people piece together any work that is available to pay the bills. Part-time workers are concentrated in areas like care, hospitality and retail – all parts of the economy where workers already face exploitation.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at a morning market. Photo / Alex Burton

These proposals would add to the problems already being faced by workers in Aotearoa. Labour market policy under this Government is a mess. Fair Pay Agreements are gone. Ninety-day trials reintroduced. Real-terms cuts to the minimum wage. A struggling labour market with climbing unemployment, and no plan in the Budget to fix it.

Prices still climbing despite promises to make it better. Unfocused and unnecessary cuts to essential public sector jobs. Now this. If politics is at its heart a popularity competition, it’s difficult to see which part of the workforce National is hoping to charm.

Reforms to the Holidays Act are needed. Simply taking away rights that have been fought for by workers over many years isn’t reform - it’s just vandalism. It isn’t helped by the fact that we have to wait until September, when a select few will be engaged in “targeted consultation”, to find out the details of this plan. Chris Bishop even went on TV and touted a ghost “consultation document” for the public to read, one that does not exist. It’s a shambles.

But there is hope here. Senior management at National could step in and right this ship. The Ministry of Health just reported that New Zealand is experiencing its highest peak in Covid-19 cases since December 2022. In April, the Ministry of Education announced that school attendance was being held back by sickness. Workers and families will need sick leave. The ingredients are all there for a sensible politician within National to realise there has been some overreach and row this back.

Act Party leader David Seymour MP. Photo / Michael Craig

If we don’t see that, it would validate many who have criticised the coalition as being without a plan to govern. There is no compelling case for sick leave or holiday leave changes right now. New Zealanders already work some of the longest hours in the OECD, more than a week at work (45 hours) longer than the average Australian. They work for lower pay and with poorer terms and conditions. Harming part-time workers, who often already have a difficult enough life as it is, makes no political or economic sense.

There is an argument that could be made that this is a government recognising that it is likely to only survive for one term. Like Rishi Sunak’s Government in the UK, it is trying to get a series of changes through that simply slow down the progress of the next government. Big tax cuts for the top end of town, tick. Repeal essential workers’ rights, tick. Repeal protections for the environment, tick. Diminish te reo Māori, attack Te Tiriti and make life harder to bring Aotearoa together, tick. If National is really in charge, it can do itself, and New Zealand, a huge favour by killing these changes. Failing to do that simply demonstrates to everyone it’s in charge but not in control.