Brooke van Velden: Workplace Relations and Safety Minister on the Government's plan to change the Holidays Act

The Government's drafting legislation to change the Holidays Act 2003, and will put it out for consultation in September.

It'll include proposals to pro-rata sick leave and move annual leave from an entitlement system, to one using accrual.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says she aims to simplify the Act so businesses can spend less time on workplace admin.

"It hasn't really adapted to a modern, flexible work environment - which is what we're aiming to achieve."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Genative trainee on that Gen Taylor's got a nice little
boost from that t Y announcement last week. We're going
to have a chat to Milford Asset Management and then
Precinct Properties on their new purchases, a couple of them
to talk about after half past six at seven pass
six right now now, the Coalition government is going to
shake up the Holidays Act. Two big changes are planned
pro rat a sick leave and a switch from an
entitlement system to an a cruel system. There'll be targeted

(00:22):
consultation on a draft of the bill in September and
the minister behind this is the Workplace Relations and Safety
Minister Brook van Valden, who's with us now, Hey, Brook, Hey, how,
I'm very well this sounds really technical? Is that what
it is? Just a technical change?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Basically, Well, the Holidays Act is really technical as a
piece of law, which is why there are so many
businesses who've got it wrong in the past. You know,
government agencies have been falling foul of the law all
the way down to small businesses. And what I'm aiming
to achieve is to simplify the law so that businesses

(00:56):
and workers know what their rights and obligations are, which
is in the benefit of businesses, so they're not spending
so much time on admin but actually doing work. And
it's in the benefit of workers, so they know what
their obligations are, what they are entitled to, and can
make sure that their bosses are paying them correctly.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Rook. What is complicated about it? You work for a company,
you're entitled to four weeks and you're leaving your entitled
to ten days sickly, what's complicated about that?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, you talk to any of the payroll providers or
any small businesses, they'll tell you that it's really complicated
and it's very hard, especially because it looks at what
was really an old school way of working five days
forty hours in a week. It hasn't really adapted to
a modern flexible work environment, which is what we're aiming

(01:46):
to achieve. One of the areas that I've heard a
lot of concern by is that businesses have struggled to
adapt to the last government's increase in the sickle to
ten days. And I'm trying to bring in a bit
of proportionality there. Yes, if you've got part time staff members,
is it proportional for all of those part time workers

(02:06):
to also have ten days. And I'll give you a
really good example of how this works. I had a
person who works in a dental practice reach out to
the office. They said, this person who's a dental hygienis
works two days a week for them, two days a
week for another company. They're entitled to twenty days sick
leave under the law. That's disproportionate to what a full

(02:27):
time worker would get. So we're making it easier to
understand and comply with for a whole range of different
work environments.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Does that mean brook that if you are that part
time worker at the dentists and you're only working two
days a week, you're not going to get the same
amount of sickly as I get when I work full
time and get ten days.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, we're bringing in that proportionality. Is it right that
a person who might work two part time jobs get
double the sickly of allocation? Those are the types of
questions that I'm hoping to ask in that consultation. So
we're asking that of businesses, workers, legal experts, as well
as payroll providers to make sure that the law is simple,

(03:06):
it's easy to understand, it's clear businesses know what their
obligations are, workers know what their rights are, and that
we can all get on and as part of a
thriving economy.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Okay, So if we're talking about sickly being proportioned, is
it the same for annual leave.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Well, annual leave is currently a proportionate, so you might
get four weeks annual leave at the end of twelve
months of continuous employment. We're bringing that back to a
cruing annual leave, which means that you're accrue it over time,
doesn't matter that you've been there for twelve months or not.
But one thing I'd make clear is that doesn't mean
that people would get less annual leaves than what they

(03:44):
currently get. That is part of one of those technical
changes that you were talking about.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Brook Listen. I was talking earlier to David Seymour about
the health and safety legislation, which is obviously a terrible
thing inflicted upon this country, and he said, you're taking
a look at it, but he didn't know where you're
at with it. Where are you at with it?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
It's possibly because I can't really talk about it yet.
So we've gone through cabinet processes and I'll be making
announcements in due course on where we're landing with that.
But I want to make it very clear to anybody
who's listening that health and safety compliance is one of
my top priorities to get down and work on this term,

(04:20):
not just the Holidays Act, but health and safety as well.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
But are you looking at a wholesale change or are
you just going to tweak.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, we'll be asking that question as well, so I'll
be doing an in depth consultation making sure that we're
asking all of the right questions. So I'm not making
tweaks to the overall legislation if that's not needed, but
also not just tweaking regulations if it really is the
law that needs a change. But any large, any large

(04:49):
scale announcements too to come on that.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
You give me hope, Brook, Thank you for that. Brook
van Velden, Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety. I mean
the health and safety legislation in this country. Jeez, it's
written for idiots, right, it really is. It's written for idiotic,
like the dumbest and drunkest person. You know. It's written
to keep them safe and keep them alive. I would
argue we shouldn't. I would argue Darwinism. Just let them

(05:13):
go for it. The rest of us and don't need
those rules. We're keeping ourselves alive.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
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