NZ: Home Truths; Margaret Wilson Delivers An Aprils Fools Day Joke For Employers
Home Truths
By Greg Knight
The Weekend Sun, Tauranga, Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand
13 February 2004 Issue: 175
Margaret Wilson Delivers An Aprils Fools Day Joke For Employers
On April 1 2004, the new holidays Act will come into force, which gives employees up to three days paid leave on the death of an immediate family or one day paid leave in the event of a death outside the immediate family that causes a person to suffer a bereavement. The new Act states ???both types of bereavement leave can be taken at any time and for any purpose genuinely relating to the death. They do not need to be taken immediately, or on consecutive days???. I don't think anyone will begrudge an employee having paid leave to mourn the loss of a family member, but it is the one day paid leave to mourn someone close that is the contentious bit.
I say contentious because National Leader Don Brash has suggested he would hire a pakeha over a Maori of equal merit because he believes Maori could claim ???unlimited tangi leave??? under this new Act. However Labour Minister Margaret Wilson believes this is misleading and that under the new Act, everyone has the same modest entitlement to a single day to mourn someone close to them.
Now I believe that laws that we trust our politicians to make should be easy for the average person like me to follow. We shouldn't expect to have to get a lawyer involved, even before the ink is dry. So when the Act doesn???t state that this one day of paid bereavement leave is limited to a year, or how many times in a year, you have to start thinking that maybe Don Brash has a point. Does this mean that you can take bereavement leave as many times in the year as you like or can justify.
Don Brash has identified Maori???s as probably taking this leave more often than others, probably because of their marae affiliations and the possibility of attending all of the marae???s tangi???s. Now if you look at some of the larger marae???s this could be a lot of leave.
However, to be fair, the Act certainly doesn???t restrict the leave to Maori???s. What if you attend the local church (and there are many churches much bigger than the average marae), and you decide that it is your right under this new law to attend each and every funeral of your ???extended church family???, as these people are close to you. You???ll never be at work, (I can hear all the people cheering now, vote Labour and you???ll never have to labour)
So, how can an employer judge if an employee is close to someone deceased. Dare an employer question an employee who states they are? The Act assumes that the employer should know who is close to the employee, or the employer must trust the employee on their say so. Seems to me like a few lawyers might be kept employed over this one. (What was Margaret Wilsons last job? Wasn't it teaching law at Waikato University? Interesting!)
Anyway to help employers understand the act, the government have given examples that the employer should consider when deciding whether to allow this entitlement.
They are;
?? How close the association was between the employee and the deceased person. (Who knows, and what guidelines are there here for the employer to follow?)
?? Whether the employee is responsible for any aspects of the ceremonies around the death. (Yep. From peeling potatoes for the tangi to being in charge of the music in the church, I???m sure there will be an excuse.)
?? Whether the employee has any cultural responsibilities they need to fulfill in respect of the death. (This could mean anything from being the Kaumatua on the marae to the Elder at the church).
There is no doubt that unless this piece of legislation is clarified, there is going to be some interesting court cases or certainly a lot of Bereavement leave.
I think Margaret Wilson needs to start consulting and listening to the wider community before she pushes through another piece of legislation that will change the way we live and work. Someone with her experience should know better, or is there a hidden agenda that us mere mortals don't know about.
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