Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Leanne Watson: Business Canterbury CEO on the proposed changes to the Holidays Act

Transcript

Leanne Watson: Business Canterbury CEO on the proposed changes to the Holidays Act · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Change also, as I mentioned, coming potentially to the Holidays Act.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: So we're looking at pro rate sick leaver switch from
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: an entitlement system to in a cruel system and you
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: will leave. This is the this is the idea of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the workplace relations Minister Brooklyn Velden, who's telling us businesses
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: had struggled since the previous government decided to double sick
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Legley and Watson, CEO of Business Canterbury, is with us
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Lee and very good morning to you, wanting make broadly
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: do these ideas make sense?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: They do. We have educated four years for the holiday
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: to be reviewed properly and to make sure that it
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: is fit for purpose for the modern workplace. So the
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: review was originally launched in twenty nineteen, but not a
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: lot of progress is made. So we are glad that
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: this's back on the agenda for the government.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: How can you launch a review in twenty nineteen and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: not really make any progress? How does that work?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Not sure about that. But what we do know
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: is this current act requires an advanced calculus degree to
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: work out what leaders owed to staff calling huge frustration
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: and miscalculations and unintentional errors. And it's not just you know,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: for small booths who don't have dedicated HR departments. We've
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: seen it across you know, big, small, private and public organizations.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Is it sick and annual?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is, and I think it's it's probably probably
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: one of the ones that causes the most frustration, in
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: particular for small business is the sickly And sometimes what
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: people don't necessarily realize or you know, they don't understand
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: what the impact is, so when they change to ten
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: sick days rather than win it is two weeks. How
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: that plays out is someone who works one day a
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: week effectively is entitled to ten days sickly, which is
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: going to cause, you know, put huge risk and pressure,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: particularly on small businesses who you know, as we know,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: are facing plenty of other risks and stress right now.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The two things on that six side of the equation
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: one is the ADMIN one is the cost Is that fair?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah? And it's yes, yeah. And just the pure complexity
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: of it, so you know, the calculations are particularly challenging
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: for or businesses who employ casual, part time stuff. And
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: you know, we know the government can't even figure out
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: how to do it with to fart or over two
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: billion to staff of a miscalculation. So you know, it
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: suggests that they have slightly larger HR departments than ninety
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: seven percent of businesses in the country who employ less
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: than twenty stuff. So we know it's complex when we've
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: seen larger organizations, you know, were sophisticated, you know, payroll
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: systems and HR departments who have not understood the complexities either.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: So there's another one of these things that we were
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: talking about early childhood a moment ago, and everyone agrees
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that the it's shambalic, it's overregulated, there's too much paperwork.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: This is the same thing, shambalic, over regulated, too much paperwork.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it just hasn't kept up with modern day
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: work practices, you know, we know, you know, casual and
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: part time workers, you know, very much prevalent in all
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: workplaces nowadays, and so you know, things like the sick
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: leave is a pleasant example where it's just not fit
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: for purpose and it is definitely needing to be changed. So,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: you know, while we still need to see some of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the d tail and the exposure draft, the signals from
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the minister is Sidney a step in the right direction.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Staff LeeAnne, always a pleasure to have you on the program.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it very much. Leanne Wat's in the CEO of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Business Canterbury. Yet another thing weird that you can have
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: so many problems that everyone agrees as a problem, and
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: yet nobody does anything about it, or the last government
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: at least launched an inquiry back in twenty nineteen, and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: as you heard lindsay, a moment ago achieved basically nothing.
• 3:23
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• 3:26
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• 3:28
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• 3:30
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