Holidays Act

A three part image showing a scale being tipped unfairly towards Discretionary Payments, then being processed through the HARE calculator, and finally the scales are shown perfectly balanced
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Court of Appeal Decision on Discretionary Payments

One of the most anticipated judgements in recent history in terms of employment law has been released by the Court of Appeal regarding Discretionary Payments, short-term incentive (STI) payments and their relationship to the Holidays Act. The Metropolitan Glass (Metro Glass) case has been the subject of much scrutiny since the Employment Court had found that payments…

A compass and map pin to visually represent the changes to bereavement, sick and family violence leave
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Navigating the changes to Bereavement, Sick and Family Violence (FBS) leave

In the first two blogs of this series, we explained the recommended changes to the Holidays Act in general, and the definition of gross earnings. So we know that annual leave will still be required to be calculated in weeks, FBAPS leave in days, and that ALL earnings will be included in gross earnings with no distinction…

A question mark to represent confusion around OWD and FBAPS
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New Holidays Act – Determining an Otherwise Working Day (OWD) for FBAPS leave

Following our blog on the changes as to when employees can take Bereavement, Sick and Family Violence (FBS) leave, a related issue is the determination of an otherwise working day (OWD) for FBAPS leave which has also caused confusion in the past. The current Act provides the employees are entitled to paid leave if the public holiday, sick day,…

visually showing the uncertainties of the new definition of gross earning with question marks, a calendar and calculator.
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What the new Definition of Gross Earnings Means for New Zealand Employers

In the first blog of this series covering the changes to the Holidays Act that have been accepted by the government, we covered the approach to the definition of a week. In this case the only real change to the Act is to attempt to more clearly define how a week can be calculated. In this blog…

a visual representation of the cycle of FBAPS, calculations, and financial implications that will be come from pending holidays act changes
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How the Pending Changes to the Holidays Act Affect New Zealand Employers

With all the issues surrounding the Holidays Act, it was finally announced this week that the government has accepted the recommendations of the Holidays Act taskforce. It is interesting that little has been said about the delay in accepting these recommendations – the report was submitted to the Hon Iain Lees-Galloway on 08 October 2019 and…