Brooke Van Velden: on the Holidays Act changes

The government is back to brainstorming for the Holidays Act, after feedback on the initial plan revealed it could make things worse. 

The legislation was set to be changed two years ago, but officials will now begin work on an hours-based accrual model for annual leave. 

Workplace Relations Minister Brooke Van Velden said the law is so complicated that even government departments have got it wrong. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The government is going back to the drawing board on
reforming the Holidays Act following consultation on its initial plan,
it's found that it could actually make problems worse. The
legislation was meant to be changed two years ago, but
officials will now begin work on an hour's based a
crawl model for annual leave. Brook van Valden is the
Workplace Relations Minister. She's with me this evening, Brook, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good evening, Ryan Minister.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
How can it be so hard to calculate holiday pain
annual leave?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, it's a very very good question. But unfortunately our
law has been so complicated that nearly every business has
become non compliant at some point, and even government departments
have gotten it wrong, which I find quite ironic. But look,
we went out for consultation on the five years of
work that the Labor government had done behind the scenes

(00:52):
and ask people, hey, do you think that this one
is good? Can we continue with it? And the overwhelming
response we got was no, it makes it even worse,
it's even more complicated. So I've made a decision that
I'm asking my officials let's make a law that simple.
I don't want one that just works it's actually got
to be something that both workers in business can understand.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well, so starting again, those should be honest about it. Minister.
I think a lot of ministers might try and hide
the fact they write a law that an amendment that
was not that good. So so okay, fair enough, you're
going to tackle the problem. What does this mean for
those you know, I'm thinking of health New Zealand here,
who have got these huge bills on their books that
they need. Does it affect that at all?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, look, it won't affect what's currently gone wrong. You know,
if people have been no non compliant with the current law,
that will still stand right. But what I'm hoping to
do in the future has put a line in the
sand and say from this date onwards, this is the
law that you must follow, and let's make it as
simple and easy to understand for everybody. But that doesn't
mean to say that we're overriding the non compliance that's

(02:01):
happened in the past. It's just a real shame that
businesses have been suffering for so many years being unable
to follow a law and pay people.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, but nothing from the past will change going forward.
Then does that mean that we're going to keep making
mistakes until you change the law.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, the current law will still apply. So what I'm
hoping to.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Say the current law is we're making mistakes in the
current law, right, so we're probably going to have more
booboos before we get a fix.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, anybody who's not sure what they should do with
the law, they can always go on to MB's website
and try and figure it out from there. But I
know it is very frustrating, which is why I'm trying
to work as quickly as possible to get something right.
What I don't want to do, though, is past a
law that would make it even worse for people. So
we're being very upfront that the law that was for

(02:54):
five years in the making is not fit for purpose.
I'm going to go and ask my officials to do
ours based a cruel model, so that means that anybody
will know how much and you'll leave they get paid
based on how many hours they work. Sounds simple enough.
There will be a lot of technicality, and I still
want to get that passed in the same timeframes that

(03:14):
the previous government and us have in place.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
All right, so we'll have something by the end of
the term. Then from you and on the minimum wage,
I know you're going to announce very shortly the twenty
twenty five minimum wage. It was you went up two
percent for the last time you did it, right to
twenty three dollars fifteen. Can we expect a similar increase
this time?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh, look, I can't let you know exactly what it's
going to be at the moment, but I'm hoping to
have a Christmas present for people and announce that before Christmas,
so you'll just have to wait a few more sleeps.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Inflation was two point two percent in the year too October.
Can we expect at least sort of people being compensated
for prices?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah? Look, look what I would say there is inflation
has been falling. We know that, we know even last
time I set the minimum wage that the forecasts fell
much faster than people expected. And that's a good thing.
But of course I'm not gonna let slip today what
it will be. You'll just have to wait just a

(04:13):
little bit longer. But I'm also really thinking of the
businesses who have been doing it extremely tough with rising costs,
and we know that they've really been struggling over the
last winter. So at the forefront of my mind is
getting the balance right so that we pay people correctly,
but we're also not putting too much cost onto businesses

(04:34):
so that they have to lay off staff or anything
because the minimum wage is going up.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Brook Van Valden is the Workplace Relations Minister.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
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Speaker 1 (04:45):
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