special leave - holidays act 1981

If you are seeking information regarding the Holidays Act 2003, please go to http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/holidays_act_2003.

We welcome the opportunity to help you further. If you want further clarification, more detailed information or guidance on any matter covered here, contact the Employment Relations Infoline (http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/help/index.html).

Special leave can be taken:

• If you are sick
• If your spouse or partner is sick
• If your dependent child is sick
• If your dependent parent is sick or your spouse's dependent parent is sick
• On the death of your spouse, parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent, father-in-law, mother-in-law, or on any occasion when your employer accepts that by reason of the death of any person you have suffered a bereavement.

Your entitlement

After 6 months current continuous employment with the same employer, you are entitled to 5 days special leave on pay during the next 12 months of employment. This right applies to all employees including part time or casual employees.

You cannot carry over any unused special leave into the next year unless your employment agreement says so.

When do I tell my employer?

If you wish to take special leave, you must notify your employer before the day, or within 4 hours of your normal starting time. Your employer has to pay you at your ordinary rate of pay for the number of hours you would have normally worked on the day, had you not been absent on special leave.

Leave for injured employees

If you are injured in the course of your employment and are unable to work, your employer must pay you compensation for loss of earnings in the first week following the injury. This payment must be 80% of the earnings lost as a result of not being able to work. After the first week, ACC will pay the compensation and provide other assistance to get you back to work as soon as possible.

If you are injured while not at work, your employer does not have to pay you for the first week. If you have any special leave available this could be used in the first week following a non-work related injury. You would be entitled to compensation from ACC after the first week.

Ask your nearest ACC office for more information about what you are eligible for after an injury (see the Blue Pages™ in the front of the telephone book) or visit www.acc.co.nz [external site].

Leave without pay

There is no legal entitlement to unpaid leave, so going on leave without pay is something that your employer has to agree to. An agreement on leave without pay might come with conditions, e.g. if it is for an extended period, there may be no guarantee of a job on your return, but you may get first preference for any vacancy.

Sometimes an employment agreement itself might deal with leave without pay. It might, for example, say that where you can't work because you are sick and you have used up all your sick leave and/or annual leave, your employer can give you leave without pay.

Also, while leave without pay might suit you at the time, there can be disadvantages. For instance, if you get injured, you may find that the level of your weekly compensation from ACC is at the minimum level payable and bears little or no relationship to your former salary. You can get more information on this topic from the ACC website at http://www.acc.co.nz/claimscare/entitlements/weekly-compensation/.

Leave for defence force volunteers

Employees who do full-time voluntary training in the armed forces for periods adding up to three months or less have their jobs protected by the Volunteers Employment Protection Act. Part-time training is also covered if it adds up to no more than three weeks in each year from 1 April to 31 March, based on the employee's normal working week.

For such leave to be protected leave under the Act, the employee must give notice to the employer at least 14 days before starting voluntary armed forces training.

The Act requires employers to allow unpaid leave to employees doing such training. The leave may be used for travel to and from training. If an employee is unable to start working again straight after training because of sickness or for some other reason related to the training, the Act requires the leave to be continued for a reasonable period.

If an employee takes protected leave under the Act, the leave period is counted as service with the employer for annual leave and pay-related purposes.

Employers are not allowed to dismiss employees for volunteering or for doing voluntary training. They can apply to the Labour Inspectors to postpone the training on grounds of hardship..