Kia ora John –

The National Government is looking to reduce part-time workers’ sick leave, which will make life harder for New Zealanders.

It will disproportionately affect disabled people and women – including mothers – as they are more likely to be working part-time.

Making sure people have enough sick leave protects our workers, businesses and health system. It means people don't come to work when they're unwell and can spread illness to others. It allows people time to recover, visit the doctor if needed and return once they're healthy. 

Last year when Christopher Luxon was asked if he would reduce sick leave, he said “absolutely not”. This move is both an attack on workers’ rights and yet another campaign promise National has broken.

The list ways National is harming Kiwi workers keeps growing:

• Scrapping Fair Pay Agreements
• Cutting the Pay Equity Taskforce
• Paring back funding to WorkSafe
• Delaying pay transparency work
• Bringing back 90-day trials
• Stopping the minimum wage top-up for disabled workers
• Cutting thousands of public service jobs

In Government, Labour doubled minimum sick leave to protect workers and businesses. We had a review of the Holidays Act underway, to fix issues and make things simpler for business – without reducing workers’ entitlements.

Join us in calling on the Government to scrap this terrible sick leave policy before it goes any further. 

Together, we can make sure National stops taking us backwards.

Camilla Belich
Spokesperson for Workplace Relations and Safety
Labour.org.nz