Employment+Leave+In+New+Zealand

=**__If a person that works has used up all of their sick leave and the person needs to take time off work to look after one of their children who has fallen sick, are they entitled to any extra leave?__** __By Edward Ludlow.__=

__**Where the law relating to employee comes from:**__
The area of law relating to employee leave and holidays comes under the Holidays act 2003 which outlines the entitlements of holidays and sick days for employees (Department of Labour, 2010). Under this act, employees are entitled to “11 public statutory holidays per year with pay; and a minimum of four weeks’ paid holiday per year” (Hubbard, Thomas & Varnham, 2010, pg.586). Employees are entitled to four weeks of paid holiday after every twelve month period (annually) of employment[|(section 16, subsection 1)], although, There can be an agreement between an employee and an employer where the employee can take part of their annual paid holiday in advance [|(section 20).]

__**What is required of employers:**__
Employers are required to pay their employees holiday pay based on the average earnings of the employee over the twelve month period, before the employees final period of payment before their holiday, alternatively, if an employee has their paid holiday in advance, the calculation is based on the twelve month period of employment before the employee’s holiday. If the employee has not been employed for the twelve month period, the calculation will be based on their average payment for period that the employee has been working for the employer (sections [|21] and [|22]) The act also allows employers to offer extra entitlements to their employees within an employment agreement, however an employer would not be able to make restrictions under the minimum of what the holidays act incorporates [|(section 6)].In an instance such as an employee, their spouse or anyone who depends on the care of the employee falls sick, they will be entitled to sick leave [|(section 65)]. After an employee has worked for their employee for a period of six months, an employee will be entitled to five days of paid sick leave, after the first six month period the employee will be entitled to five days of sick leave every twelve months (Hubbard, Thomas & Varnham, 2010). If an employee does not use any of his or her sick leave entitlement within the twelve month period, those sick days can be transferred into the next twelve month period. He or she would be able to accumulate a maximum of twenty sick days in a twelve month period [|(section 66)]. As an employer, under section eighteen of the Holidays act 2003, the responsibilities are that there is an agreement when holidays are to be taken between the employee and the employer [|(][|section 18, subsection 3] [|)]. If an employee requests that they take their holiday leave, an employer cannot unreasonably withhold them from doing so [|(section 18, subsection 4)].

__**How this law has affected New Zealand:**__
In New Zealand, as of the first of April 2007, the employee annual leave was extended from three weeks to four weeks (OnlineHR, 2010). The change from three weeks to four has been incorporated into the holidays act 2003, Replacing the holidays act 1981, which under section eleven, had a minimum entitlement of three weeks of annual leave (section 11 of the holidays act 1981). Within this transition employers would have needed to consider that “days in Lieu” need to be converted into alternative holidays, meaning that any rules regarding “days in lieu” were treated as alternative holidays under the new legislation (Department of Labour, 2010).

__**Summary:**__
In summary, if one was to use up their sick leave, they could use their holiday leave. An employee is able to accumulate sick days and holidays from previous periods so one may end up with an ample amount of paid leave days. One would also be able to use leave days in advance depending on the terms of their employer, therefore there would be more than adequate paid leave days available within each twelve month period.

//__**More information can be found at:**__//
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the holidays act 2003 can be found at:
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//__**the holidays act 1981 can be found at:**__//
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