Covid-19: Fletcher makes isolating workers use sick leave instead of taking Govt support

Thursday, 17 March 2022

Workers will be eligible for a day's sick leave from day one on the job under changes to the Holidays Act. The revamp will axe the current six-month waiting period for sick days. It's one of a swathe of recommendations by a panel of union, business

Fletcher Building is forcing its employees to use up their sick leave when isolating from Covid-19, despite ample Government support being available, a union representing workers says.

First Union organiser Justin Wallace said several thousand workers across the country – from quarries and construction to PlaceMakers and Winstone Wallboards staff – were “furious” and “massively let down” by the decision.

“As far as motive, it’s pretty clear that this is a penny-pinching attempt to drive down leave balances and offload labour costs,” Wallace said.

Leave balances had risen due to the pandemic as a result of people being able to access discretionary leave and Government support for isolation, he said.

* Covid-positive health workers can return to work as self-isolation rules change

* Building projects grind to a halt as dominant Fletcher freezes Gib orders

* Companies refusing to apply for Government sick leave subsidy to cover workers

Emails sent by workers to the union showed employees complaining about the policy.

“I found out today that my sick leave was used … it is payday and I saw it in my payslip,” one read.

Fletcher Building was chosen by Morningstar as a top pick.

A Fletcher Building spokesman denied the company’s motive was driving down leave balances.

Instead, the organisation was “moving to a strategy of living with Covid” and this had shaped how it approached pay and leave, he said.

On Thursday, the deaths of 10 people with Covid were announced, with 19,566 community cases reported nationally.

“Where a team member is required to isolate as a public health requirement, they are able to use their sick leave and other leave to ensure they continue to be paid throughout their isolation period,” said the Fletcher spokesman.

“We believe our approach of utilising leave entitlements for periods of Covid-related absence, combined with additional discretionary support where required, strikes the appropriate balance.”

The Government offers a number of wage subsidy programmes to help pay employees who needed to self-isolate because of Covid-19 and couldn’t work from home. These include the Covid-19 Leave Support Scheme and Short-Term Absence Payment.

PlaceMakers, owned by Fletchers, has instigated a similar policy.

In 2020, Fletcher Building received more than $66 million from the Government's wage subsidy scheme to support more than 9000 workers.

Fletcher maintained it would still not pay back the support because it was “used exactly as the Government intended at the time”.

The company also did not believe it was necessary for it to access Government funding at this time and had not applied for any support, the spokesman said.

“At this stage, we are confident we can support our people and do not need to access Government funding to pay our people their entitlements, or other support measures we may consider offering.”

Wallace said requiring staff to use sick leave was “risky as well as insulting”.

“We’re expecting a flu-heavy winter and staff are being forced to use up sick leave even when they aren’t sick, which risks their future wellbeing and creates precarity despite the pandemic continuing.”

The spokesman said the option of discretionary leave was available and would involve “individual conversations” between the employee and their manager if the need arose.

The union was questioning why a company that acted “this irresponsibly and self-interestedly” was even able to access “lucrative and continuous Government contracts” while “exemplifying worst practice in every area during the pandemic”.

“Workers are seeing friends and neighbours in similar roles being supported to isolate when they need to and feeling angry that their own employer – which is huge, profitable and deeply enmeshed with Government – taking a miserly and self-interested approach to the wellbeing of their workers,” Wallace said.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has been approached for comment.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Fletcher Building reported increased profits and margins later in 2020. It reported a $196m loss.