Union in talks after Stats NZ requests staff take more leave over Christmas

Saturday, 19 August 2023

Stats NZ has extended its normal Christmas close-down by an extra week, to three weeks, and says it is continuing to “carefully manage” its hiring practices, amid speculation of a public sector spending clampdown.

The department will require most employees take eight days annual leave over the close-down period, in addition to the four statutory and three other days-off that it offers staff.

One staffer said the measure was creating issues for employees who needed leave to manage childcare responsibilities during the rest of the year and believed it was “bending the intent of the Holidays Act”.

A spokesperson for the Public Service Association said it couldn’t comment as it was talking to Stats NZ about the matter.

Government departments were rumoured to have been advised by Finance Minister Grant Robertson to watch their spending more carefully earlier this month, in the wake of the Crown accounts deteriorating from the track set out in the Treasury’s Budget forecast in May.

The Government accounts for the 11 months to the end of May show net core Crown debt $5 billion above forecast.

Stats NZ deputy chief executive Fiona Hewitt said it had extended its Christmas close-down as it wanted staff to take a good break, but said another reason was that it was “managing its finances prudently as is expected of a government department”.

Unused leave is usually recorded as a financial liability on the books of employers.

Stats had told staff about the change as early as it could, so they could plan ahead, Hewitt said.

“We recognise a three-week period may not be suitable for everyone, so there is flexibility in this approach.”

Hewitt denied there was a hiring freeze at Stats NZ but said it was continuing to carefully manage its recruitment and hiring practices.

The staff member who was concerned about the impact of the extended close-down said employees were having separate difficulties persuading people to participate in Stats NZ’s agricultural production and household labour force surveys.

Stats NZ offered more than $1 million of incentives to encourage people to participate in this year’s census and the staffer said more people were now refusing to participate in its other survey by making demands, such as “show me the rugby tickets”.

Hewitt said the department had not identified any significant increase in difficulties obtaining responses to its household labour force survey that could be attributed to its census incentives.

However, it was becoming generally more challenging to collect data, as Stats NZ had been making clear for some years, she said.

“Our field-based data collectors are experiencing increasing resistance towards data collection, especially when it involves knocking on doors of private homes.

“People are busy. Being available for survey interviewers or data collectors who knock on their doors to ask them questions, or doing things for the Government, isn't necessarily a priority for them.”