Opposition support enough to pass the 'Mondayisation' bill
"Why is the government not taking the opportunity to roll back the compulsory time and a half payment (to maybe time and a quarter) for public holidays?"
Featured commentNational’s decision not to veto Labour’s ‘Mondayisation’ bill should give it clear passage through today’s second reading.
SwarbrickBeckMcKinnon employment lawyer Kathryn Beck says finance minister Bill English cleared the way for parliamentary support when he confirmed the government would not use the financial veto to stymie the legislation.
“Even at select committee stage you might now see National MPs taking a step back and we might get some very constructive debate around it," she says.
National still will not support Dunedin North MP David Clark’s bill, but acknowledges there is enough political support for it.
The bill would see the Anzac and Waitangi day holidays transferred to a Monday if they fall on a weekend.
Last year Mr English said the financial veto would be used because of the economic cost of the bill.
A financial veto can be used by the government if any private member's bill is likely to significantly affect the budget.
Department of Labour advice shows the annual cost when one holiday falls on a weekend is $203.6 million, while it would cost $407.2 million if two holidays fell on a weekend in the same year.
“It does largely affect private business but it also affects the government to the extent it has a lot of employees. However, the cost is not significant,” Mr English says.
But Ms Beck suspects the reason for the u-turn is the level of public support for the bill.
She says there will be an additional cost to productivity, given two in every seven years employers will have to pay staff for a public holiday.
However, she says the holidays will be structured in the same way other Monday holidays are, so she expects the process to be the same and logistical costs to be kept to a minimum.
Dr Clark says National should vote for the legislation.
The bill passed its first vote in July by 61 votes to 60 when United Future’s Peter Dunne went against the government to support it.
Back to home
Back to top
Print
Latest
NBR SERVICES
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Sign up for NBR subscriber content or email alerts
Comments and questions5
Why is the government not taking the opportunity to roll back the compulsory time and a half payment (to maybe time and a quarter) for public holidays? That way the measures would very roughly balance out in their impact.
Time-and-four-ninths would be about right
Yes, another way to impose costs upon employers. If the govt wants people to have another Monday off, it should pick up the tab instead of passing the cost on to those who create jobs.
Don't they get it that every additional cost imposed on employers results in job losses.
If the day in lieu for Anzac Day was genuine because the employees spent the actual day at dawn service and the rest of the day volunteering at RSAs then the idea might have some credence, and some employers might actually voluntarily support it.
Again, if the day falls on a weekend why does an employee need a day off? What happened for the employee that they need to be compensated for? You can't argue that they celebrated Anzac or Waitangi day. For most it's just another day, except that the shops don't open until the afternoon. And if they do celebrate it on the weekend, why is it suddenly the boss's responsibility to pay so they can have a holiday during the week? Is the average population so morally crippled that they cannot remember an important day (Anzac Day) unless someone creates a free holiday to mark the occasion?
Modern day socialism - redistribution of wealth for the redistribution of votes.
It is interesting to see Mr English saying the cost of Monday-ising public holidays is insignificant, when on this morning's news, for similar ball-park figures, he considered the cost of increasing paid parental leave was intolerable and would veto any successful vote, as was widely reported yesterday online.