Mondayisation Bill passes

Written By: - Date published: 6:31 pm, April 17th, 2013 - 20 comments
Categories: labour, workers' rights - Tags: , ,

As expected David Clark’s private member’s bill to “Mondayise” holidays passed its final reading this evening. The vote was 61 to 60 with National and ACT voting against.

This is quite a coup for David Clark – not often that an opposition member gets a bill through. Well done to him for putting together the votes. Nice also to see that the Maori Party and Peter Dunne retain enough vestiges of independence to get out from under the Nats’ skirts sometimes (albeit for a minor but popular issue).

20 comments on “Mondayisation Bill passes ”

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  1. RedLogix 1
    17 April 2013 at 6:59 pm

    Well done David Clark.

    Sadly it does have one very undesirable side-effect for a large group of retail workers who normally work Saturday and then have the Sunday and Monday off, making their situation worse than before.

    In a number of cases I am aware of, their employer then claims that if a Statutory Holiday falls on a Monday … then because they’ve had the day off as a matter of course then there is no requirement to compensate them in any way.

    No day in lieu nor the time and a half that would be paid to other workers if they worked the extra days. Looked at from this point of view these people are working an extra 6 days a year, now 9, for no compensation whatsoever.

    If you are working a full 40 hr week, (in fact many of them work longer than this because their Saturday is usually a full-on 10hr day), then you should be entitled to move your Stat days to another day, or be paid time and half (by agreement with your employer).

    • Lanthanide 1.1
      17 April 2013 at 7:25 pm

      No, the situation is not worse than before.

      If the holiday falls on Saturday, they get it as a stat day. If it fell on a Sunday, they didn’t work and so didn’t get it any way. If it fell on a Monday, likewise.

      It’s the same rules as apply to Xmas and New Years: if you would normally work on the Saturday or Sunday, and it is a stat day, then you get that day as a stat day. For everyone else, they are shifted to Monday and Tuesday.

      I do think that it should have been Friday-ised for this reason, though, since most stat days are pegged as Monday’s, if you never work Monday you never get them. For example someone who works Tues-Sat never works on Sunday or Monday, so Mondaying a holiday that falls on Sunday doesn’t help them at all, but if it was Friday-ised it would. Friday-ising them would help to maintain a special character for Anzac and Waitangi day, since all other holidays are Mondayised.

      • RedLogix 1.1.1
        17 April 2013 at 7:43 pm

        ANZAC and Waitangi Day can fall on any day of the week. This Bill has effectively shifted them both onto the Monday where according to your own words; If it fell on a Sunday, they didn’t work and so didn’t get it any way. If it fell on a Monday, likewise.

        Therefore if either of these days had fallen on Tuesday through to Friday then yes always shifting it to Monday does make them worse off.

        I can’t but help ironically quote David Clark himself:

        Clark is celebrating the passage of the bill in New York, where he is taking part in an overseas study exchange with the Eisenhower Fellowship.

        “I am thrilled that hard-working Kiwi families will now get their full 11 public holidays every year,” he said.

        … when these people get NONE.

        • Lanthanide 1.1.1.1
          17 April 2013 at 8:11 pm

          Um, the bill does not “always shift it to Monday”. If it falls on Monday – Friday, it remains on that day. It is only when it falls on a weekend that it is shifted to Monday…

        • Colonial Viper 1.1.1.2
          17 April 2013 at 8:13 pm

          IIRC the holidays are only shifted to the Monday IF and ONLY IF they were going to fall on the weekend.

          • RedLogix 1.1.1.2.1
            17 April 2013 at 8:19 pm

            umm. Fair enough. The story I got was incorrect.

            In that case I think Lanth is right, Friday would probably have been a smarter choice.

    • Oscar 1.2
      17 April 2013 at 11:24 pm

      Partially incorrect. If a public holiday falls on a normal day off for those employees they are still entitled to a day in lieu.

      • hoom 1.2.1
        18 April 2013 at 1:03 am

        No you only get a day in lieu if you actually did any work on the public holiday.

        Statutory minimums are:
        If you work on a public holiday you get paid time & a half for the hours worked plus full paid day in lieu regardless of how many hours worked.
        (working 2 shifts in the same public holiday gets only one day in lieu but you get time & a half for all hours of both shifts that were on the public holiday)

        If you would normally work that day & are not required to work that day you get paid for a full day but no day in lieu.

        If you are rostered off and would normally have been rostered off then its just a rostered day off, no time & a half, no day in lieu.
        Knowing several people who have worked regular Tues -> Sat rosters & missed loads of public holidays I would never agree to work that shift without the missing out on public holidays being otherwise compensated. (would be nice if there could be a ‘Tuesdayisation’ for those who are usually rostered off on Mondays)

        If they change your roster to make you be rostered off on the Public Holiday when you’d normally have worked that day then you should get paid for a full day on the Public Holiday.
        With a standardised roster its easy to see where this has happened, in workplaces where the rosters frequently change it could be hard to prove either way.

        (unless these rules are actually changed by this legislation? I have presumed all it does is mondayise the ones that occasionally wind up on weekends)

        Handy tool:
        http://dol.govt.nz/tools/holidaytool/Owd.aspx

        As a person who regularly works weekends & not Fridays I think this is a great change 🙂
        Its crazy that there was actually any opposition to it.
        The thing that I found most galling was seeing a bunch of foreign owned companies/embassies etc happily Mondayise the last few examples for their local employees while our domestic companies were complaining that it was an unreasonable abomination.

        • Lanthanide 1.2.1.1
          18 April 2013 at 8:17 am

          Yeah, the last two times Waitangi day fell on the weekend, the Australian embassy in NZ gave their employees the Monday off. It seems to be the ultimate in irony: that the Australians would be better at celebrating our own national holiday than we are. I’m surprised it wasn’t brought up in parliament; or if it was, that it didn’t make the news.

  2. Colonial Viper 2
    17 April 2013 at 7:08 pm

    Yep, congratulations to you David Clark, damn fine job you’re making your mark already.

  3. GregJ 3
    17 April 2013 at 8:02 pm

    Congratulations to David Clark – nice to see someone still has the workers welfare in mind!

    A long overdue change – in my present part of the world (the Middle East) “Mondayisation” (or rather “Sundayisation” or “Thursdayisation” is standard practice. Nice to see NZ catching up with the Third World!

  4. Michael 4
    17 April 2013 at 9:02 pm

    Well done David. I just hope this law isn’t repealed by a future government, anxious to appease its friends from the “business community”.

  5. Rhinocrates 5
    17 April 2013 at 9:04 pm

    David Clark and Louisa Wall are Real Labour.

    Private Member’s Bills, not supported by the party? Not so good.

    • Ben Clark 5.1
      18 April 2013 at 9:05 am

      Private Member’s Bills as that’s the only way opposition parties can introduce legislation.

      In David Clark’s case, entirely supported by Labour (and other Opposition Parties + Maori + Peter Dunne).
      In Louisa Wall’s case – a conscience vote, but almost entirely supported by Labour MPs, but not by Ross Robertson / Su’a William Sio representing their morally conservative South Auckland constituencies.

  6. Descendant Of Sssmith 6
    17 April 2013 at 9:46 pm

    Hopefully a bill next for a 8 hour working day, 40 hour working week, a minimum salary of 120% of the average wage, a compulsory 2% wage increase for everyone every year so wages at least are protected from some erosion by inflation (many contracts have zero provision for any sort of pay increase, the shutting down of retail and most other business from 12:00 am on Saturday – any of these will do.

    Has to be a PMB cause there ain’t no workers party.

  7. irascible 7
    18 April 2013 at 8:40 am

    Listened to Phil O’Reilly on Morning Report today commenting on the success of this Bill. He saw no real issues with it but the used the interview to launch into a diatribe attacking Labour because the Mondayisation Act indicated that when Labour becomes the Government the hard won rights of employers to deny Union representation and the 90 day trial employment provisions will be removed.
    I was not enamoured of the man or the union he represents… “The Employers Federation.”

    • Tom Gould 7.1
      18 April 2013 at 9:20 am

      Why should it surprise people to hear O’Reilly spouting doctrinaire right wing rubbish? That’s the role he has carved out for himself in support of his Tory mates rather than representing the best long term interests of the people who pay his wages. The test of his integrity will be whether he resigns in 2014 following the election of a Labour-led government?

    • Lanthanide 7.2
      18 April 2013 at 11:05 am

      I was disappointed that Geoff didn’t pull him up and say “but actually none of that is about the Mondayisation bill”.

    • Darien Fenton 7.3
      18 April 2013 at 11:41 am

      @irascible : +1