The Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill that increases the minimum entitlement to paid sick leave from 5 to 10 days has now passed its third reading and received Royal Assent, meaning the law will come into effect from 24 July this year.
Under the new law, employees will be entitled to 10 days sick leave upon their next entitlement anniversary. Calculation of the entitlement anniversary remains the same as previous – so generally either after reaching 6 months’ employment (for new employees) or on their standing sick leave entitlement anniversary (12 months after they were last entitled to sick leave).
The maximum amount of unused sick leave that an employee is entitled to remains the same, a total of 20 days.
Employers will need to review their sick leave policies and processes as well as employment agreements to ensure they comply with the new law.
For more information about the changes see Employment New Zealand's Guidance and also our previous update.
