Increasing sick leave to 10 days a year a matter of 'when, not if' employers say

Thursday, 20 August 2020

Michael Barnett of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce says gradually increasing the sick leave entitlement to workers is not unreasonable.

Some business leaders believe it’s a matter of “when, not if” the country increases the worker sick leave entitlement from five to 10 days.

But both the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) and the Auckland Chamber of Commerce said there was no need to rush through law change during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Green Party has called for the sick leave entitlement to rise to 10 days for workers, and an online petition calling for the same is approaching 10,000 signatures.

Green Party workplace relations spokeswoman Jan Logie said workers wanted to play their part in fighting Covid-19 by staying at home if they have cold-like symptoms, but could not afford to lose income.

The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged many workplace practices, and the Green Party is calling for workers to have a minimum sick leave entitlement of 10 days.

* Companies offering uncapped sick leave say workers don't abuse it

* What does the coronavirus mean for my job?

“New Zealand currently has lower sick leave provisions than almost all other OECD countries, with most countries providing at least two weeks’ paid leave,” Logie said.

“Australia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Spain all have two weeks, and lots of European countries like Germany have three weeks or even more.”

Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett believed it was inevitable that sick leave entitlements would be increased by law.

“I think it is [inevitable], given the new environment that we have. I don’t believe it’s unreasonable to look at gradually extending sick leave,” he said.

But he saw no reason for rapid law change at a time when businesses were struggling with lower incomes, and said there was no evidence that the current arrangements between workers and their employers were not working.

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said imposing more costs on businesses that were are already under a considerable amount of pressure now “would be a bad call”.

Many businesses were in survival mode and employers could access the existing Covid-19 Leave Support scheme, he said.

EMA chief executive Brett O’Reilly said employers have always had an informal system in place to deal with staff who did not have enough sick leave.

“There’s no real need to fix something that only affects a small minority of people, particularly at a time like this,” O’Reilly said.

“With more flexible working there is almost less need. If people need to stay home and work because they have a runny nose but would have otherwise been the office, they can,” he said.

“I’d suggest if employers had to add that cost to their balance sheet they’d be better off putting the money into preventative measures such as flu jabs and wellbeing programmes.”

New Zealand lost about 7.4 million working days to absence in 2018, a report from Southern Cross Health Society and BusinessNZ found last year.

A move to make it easier for workers to get sick leave while they wait for their Covid-19 test is being criticised for not going far enough.

The report concluded that greater recognition of elements of worker health, including mental health, could lead to the average number of sick days taken by workers creeping up.

“Levels of absence have remained on average between 4.5 and 5 days per employee. However, any increases beyond that might be an acceptable price to pay for a healthier, happier and more productive workforce,” the Workplace Wellness Report said.

Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said increasing the legal minimum from five days to 10 days a year was a basic issue of safety.

“Covid-19 has really focused all our minds on the importance of staying home when you are sick. But the current reality of a legal minimum of five days’ sick leave is unrealistic in achieving the goal of people staying away from work if they are unwell,” Wagstaff said.

Already many workers were entitled to more than five sick days a year. And there were some unionised workers who were able to accumulate sick leave, so if they didn’t use all their entitlement in one year, it carried over to the next, Wagstaff said.

A 2016 online survey by Buzz Channel appeared to indicate very little abuse of sick leave by employees.

It appeared to show that it was far more common for people to go to work while feeling unwell with a minor illness, than it was for people to claim sick leave for reasons such as having a hangover.

A common reason for people to go to work despite feeling unwell was that their employer frowned on people taking sick leave, the survey found.

Some companies that offered unlimited sick leave did not find workers abused it.

Frog Recruitment director Jane Kennelly said that when she owned her business for 18 years she provided all staff with unlimited sick leave and workers did not abuse it.

Kennelly said for a company to raise its sick leave entitlement, or provide unlimited sick leave, it needed to build a strong sense of trust with its workers.

“When I offered unlimited sick leave people thought staff would take leave willy-nilly. But quite the opposite happened. We were well below the average just because there was an element of trust,” Kennelly said.