The first question I asked Brooke van Velden after she unveiled her Holidays Act overhaul on Tuesday was: What’s the catch?
Because what the workplace relations and safety minister had just announced seemed too good to be true from a supposed right-wing, business-loving, worker-hating, union-squashing party politician. …
The mountain that is the overhaul of the Holidays Act is a massive one to climb. While she hasn’t conquered it yet, she’s closer to the top than any previous minister.
And she’s done it by not stomping on political opponents, unions or everyday working Kiwis like many would have expected an ACT MP to do.
This is one of the best reforms I have seen. Liam Hehir made the point that leave should be able to be calculated in an excel spreadsheet, and this new system will be able to do that. The old system was so terrible that multi million payroll systems would still get it wrong.
As Lloyd points out Brooke has been exceptionally fair. There has been numerous improvement for employees, and the few areas where some are slightly worse off are justified on the grounds of fairness or simplicity.
Employers will probably end up paying slightly more than they used to, but the vast majority will happily trade that cost off for the simplicity of the new system.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
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