this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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Govt May Cut Sick Leave: Luxon Signals Potential Reduction from 10 to 5 Days (www.rnz.co.nz)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The Government is considering changes to current sick leave entitlements, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon indicating that reducing sick leave from 10 to five days is on the table.

Speaking to RNZ, Luxon said:

“That’s something that I know [Workplace Relations and Safety Minister] Brooke van Velden is looking into. She looks at a whole raft of workplace relations.”

While he noted it was "a bit premature for now," he added:

“I think there’s probably a need for us to look at it for sure, and just make sure that we’ve got that setting right—particularly around proportionate sick leave for part-time workers versus full-time workers and those sorts of things.”

Luxon confirmed that van Velden is working on a broader workplace relations package:

“She’ll continue to talk about [it] as you’ve seen already this year.”

In a separate appearance on Newstalk ZB, Luxon suggested changes were likely and an announcement regarding sick leave could be expected, though no timeframe was given.

Current Sick Leave Law (NZ) Under current legislation:

Employees (full-time, part-time, or casual) are entitled to 10 days of sick leave per year.

Eligibility requires:

Six months of continuous employment with the same employer.

Working at least 10 hours per week on average.

At least one hour in every week, or 40 hours in every month.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

I remember many years ago reading a contract I was signing, that was written by a union. I remember reading the section on leave entitlements, that spelt out in full detail what was only the minimum legal requirements at the time. I remember thinking how weird it was to have it in the contract when it was already the law.

Since then, National removed the requirement for employers to provide and specific amount of breaks (I think Labour brought this back) and now they are rolling back progress in the number of days of leave you're entitled to. I understand very well now that the union wasn't dumb they were experienced.