Currently, we have mandatory 4 weeks leave and 11 public holidays. Employers are, however, able to impose closedown or no-leave periods of their choosing. This is inconvenient and unfair on those who wish to take holidays at non-traditional times.
I'd suggest the following:
1. require employers to let workers take leave at a time of their choosing, subject to reasonable (3 month?) notice
1a. allow limited exceptions for small (< 10 person) businesses or education and similar institutions with seasonal operations
2. replace current public holidays with 11 days extra leave
2a. for these days, allow the exception above for customer-facing roles that can reasonably be expected to close
3. remove all opening restrictions around public holidays
3a. ensure that under (1) employees are able to be rostered off for traditional and religious holidays according to their personal wishes.
Many closedowns are based on seasonal work/weather fluctuations and are completely reasonable. Similarly some manufacturing sites will have annual maintenance shutdowns which also seem pretty reasonable. So you'll need to be careful to not skittle the reasonable closedowns.
Yes, but a lot of companies just close down because it's easier.
Before I came to NZ, I was never expected to take compulsory leave. What typically happened at Xmas was that most people took the two weeks, but a few people came in and formed a skeleton staff. (This was actually better for business, as there were customers who wanted to deal with us over the break).
Pros:
Cons:
Suggestions:
Seasonal shutdowns in industries like dairy and meat are for a couple of months not a handful of days. I think it's going to be necessary to simply permit reasonable seasonal shutdowns.
This will allow Christmas shutdowns in most industries which is what Rich was arguing against.
Just out of curiousity, should businesses be allowed to choose their own holidays too?
i.e. should teh same rights to choose for workers be allowed to the businesses?