29th May, 2018
The New Zealand government has established a taskforce to bring key stakeholders together in reviewing and recommending changes to the Holidays Act 2003.
The initiative, announced today by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway, seeks to address underlying issues with the Act, which is generally viewed by businesses as a major hurdle to administering accurate and timely payroll.
MYOB’s Business Monitor survey of more than 1,000 local owners of small-to-medium enterprises found 68 percent support reforming the Holidays Act to simplify how leave entitlements are calculated, while almost one fifth (18 percent) say calculating and tracking leave entitlements and balances is a key pain point for their business.
Businesses will welcome changes to the Holidays Act that make it easier to administer says the General Manager of MYOB, Carolyn Luey.
“Businesses have been tearing their hair out trying to comply with the Holidays Act. Owners will be hoping the taskforce’s proposals take the pain out of administering leave entitlements,” said Luey.
“There have been several high-profile examples of both big and small employers being caught out by the Act’s complexity. Business owners will be looking for changes that make it easier to determine exactly what an employee is owed.”
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In a government media release, Lees-Galloway highlighted the relative age of the legislation as being part of the issue, citing “enormous change in our labour market over the past 15 years…”
“The time is now right to directly address the underlying issues with the Act,” Lees-Galloway said.
“I’ve been approached by Business NZ and the Council of Trade Unions to help tackle this vexed and complex set of issues and I’m excited about the work we have ahead of us.”
MYOB, which provides payroll services for around one million New Zealanders (accounting for one-third of the workforce), is in an ideal position to provide balanced recommendations as part of the taskforce, representing the broader interests of both businesses and employees.
“Reforming the Act to make it easier to administer will be good for everyone. It’ll make payroll time less stressful for business owners and mean employees less likely to miss out on entitlements, said Luey.
“Any changes that are proposed by the Taskforce and put into legislation will need to be built into our software packages. Technology can take the stress out of administering payroll, if the legislation is easy to interpret and implement.”