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Major change Govt wants to make to workers' sick leave (www.newshub.co.nz)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Xcf456 to c/politics

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Cutting part time workers' sick leave entitlements from the 10 days everyone currently gets to being pro-rated based on how much they work.

*** Also covid vaccines will apparently no longer be free for most people after this month.*** EDIT: this was circulating yesterday, but isn't true so that's good.

And this during the biggest covid wave in 18 months, where hospitals and schools are having to close or reduce capacity because so many staff are sick. What a bunch of ghouls.

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[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The cynic in me thinks its only so hard for employers to figure out what someone's leave entitlement is because they account for it as a liability and try to minimise how much anyone can take while maximising the times when they are forced to take it.

I can't remember now, but wasn't the context for the law change that shift workers who did 4 days of 12 hours, then 3 days off only getting paid the equivalent of 8 hours when they took a day of leave?

[–] Dave 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But in this case they should be paid 12 hours, because a "day" is not defined as 8 hours, but as what they would have normally worked.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah - but did sick leave ever get the same clarification? The language in the forms I use at work is half day, full day off sick.

But in effect you're asking for your shift off work - so if a shift is 12 hours then yeah I would think it would be sensible for 12 hours, I just don't know if sick leave actually gets paid the same way.

Because its definitely not paid out as "days" - in the 24 hour sense. Like if you're a part timer doing a 4 hour day, I can't imagine the current law lets you have 20 shifts off right? Its more like "day" in that sense means, times not working due to being sick.

[–] Dave 1 points 5 months ago

It's not based on any particular number of hours, but rather on what they would have earned that day. So an employee working part time 4 hours a day will be paid 4 hours for a day off, so their 10 days only costs the employer half as much as an employee working full time (i.e. it ends up proportional). But funky stuff starts to happen if someone's part time hours are 2.5 full days instead of 5 half days.

An employee gets paid their relevant daily pay (with a backup method if that's not possible), which is laid out here.

It says it's what they would have earned, and clarifies things like taxable allowances and overtime are included if they would have otherwise earned them that day.