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	Holidays Act Review likely to impact tourism employers and staff
	By TIM COSSAR - 31 July 2009

The Holidays Act is an important piece of legislation for the tourism industry and TIA is keen to hear your views on what you think of proposed changes.

If you have time, we’d really appreciate it if you could spend a few minutes answering TIA’s survey on the Holidays Act Review. Click here to let us know what you think.

We can then incorporate your thoughts into TIA’s submission to the Government, which is due in at the end of August.  In particular, we want to understand how the Holidays Act affects the bottom-line operation of your business. 

Background     

Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson says the upcoming review of the Holidays Act will “make the Act easier for businesses and employees to understand and apply while maintaining fairness in the employment relationship”. 

The Minister says she wants to hear what New Zealanders think of the Act and what suggestions they have for improving it. The major focus of the Holidays Act Review includes three clear outcomes:

1. Making the Act easier to understand
2. Reducing compliance costs; and
3. Making the Act more flexible in application.       

An advisory group, consisting of business and worker representatives has been appointed by the Minister to conduct the review. 

The advisory group wants to hear from people about the formula for calculating relevant day pay, trading an employee’s fourth week of annual leave for cash and transferring the observance of public holidays (from say Christmas or Easter to Ramadan, for example). Click here to see the Department of Labour’s website for more details.
Impact on Tourism

The Holidays Act is a piece of legislation that affects every single tourism business.

In 24/7 industries like tourism and hospitality, employing a lot of casual and seasonal workers, the rules and regulations governing holidays are pretty important. 

In recent times, there has been criticism at just how complex and time-consuming the Holidays Act is for both businesses and employees to understand and work with.

When I am around the country talking to owners of small tourism businesses, more often than not compliance issues emerge as the most onerous of tasks facing operators. 

Examples include difficulty working with IRD, ACC, OSH, RMA, KiwiSaver, numerous local government by-laws and the Holidays Act.  All of these soak up valuable time, effort and costs that could be better deployed by tourism operators in promoting and running their business.    

The Holidays Act Review is one of several reviews currently underway as part of the Government’s fast-paced reform agenda and TIA is working hard to ensure the tourism industry’s voice is heard on a range of issues including Resource Management Act reforms, the review of the Emissions Trading Scheme, as well as possible changes to the Accident Compensation Corporation and the Foreshore and Seabed Act, plus a raft of others. 

If you have views you would like to share on any of the following issues please feel free to contact either me or TIA Policy Manager Simon Wallace by email at: simon.wallace@tianz.org.nz

Let’s influence some positive changes together. We look forward to hearing from you.    

 Tim Cossar
Chief Executive
TIA