Employer Bulletin | 3 August 2026
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Here's what is leading the news for employers this week:
The Employment Leave Bill has passed its third and final reading, ushering in a long-awaited overhaul of the law that provides employees with employment leave entitlements, like annual and sick leave, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden announced today.
“This Bill delivers on the Government’s priority to replace the broken Holidays Act with a leave system which is simple and straightforward, so that employers have confidence in their calculations, and employees have confidence they are being paid correctly – a benefit to workers and businesses alike,” says Ms van Velden.
Key aspects of the Bill include:
Annual and sick leave accrued in hours, in direct proportion to standard hours of work
Annual, sick, bereavement and family violence leave available from the first day of work
Use of a single hourly rate for paying leave, across all types of leave
A new 12.5% Leave Compensation Payment for additional and casual hours, instead of accruing annual leave and sick leave for those hours
Mandatory pay statements that itemise pay and leave in a way that’s transparent and easy to understand
Greater flexibility to cash up annual leave, with workers able to cash up 25% of their total annual leave balance each year
A new Otherwise Working Day test for those who work additional days or do not have a specified pattern of work
Removal of annual leave payment penalty for those returning from parental leave.
In today’s Bulletin:
‘Choice’ to resign or face termination found to be constructive dismissal
Procedural flaws render redundancy unjustified despite genuine reason
Allegedly aggressive employee granted interim restatement onto company payroll
Employee ordered to repay big sum of miscalculated bonus and leave payments
Delivery driver misclassified as contractor receives remedies for unjustified dismissal
Six news updates of interest for employers including:
Holidays Act headache finally over as leave reform delivered
AI search harnessed to back tourism growth
Simpler, clearer, more effective RSE scheme
First new offshore petroleum permit granted
Household living costs increase 3.2 percent
More flexibility for growers of smaller-scale crops
Eight Bills open for submission
If you have any questions, about this case or other employment relation matters, call the Advice Line team on 0800 800 362.
Download the bulletin:
