The Holidays Act 2003 provides for the public holidays listed below. Team members will be paid for the holiday when it falls on a day that would otherwise be a working day for them:

• Christmas Day (25 December)
• Boxing Day (26 December)
• New Year’s Day (1 January)
• 2 January
• Waitangi Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Anzac Day
• Queens Birthday
• Labour Day
• Auckland Anniversary

See an explanation of the legal rights and obligations around public holidays. Our handling of public holidays is as follows:

Working on a public holiday: It is a condition of employment (refer to Council or Infracore employment agreements) that team members may be required to work on a public holiday.

Payment:  Payment for public holidays varies in different parts of our organisation and is as described in the team member’s employment agreement (refer to Council or Infracore agreements as appropriate).  Be sure to check the appropriate employment agreement and discuss with Organisational Development and Capability if in doubt.  

Day’s in Lieu:  Team members who work on a public holiday which  falls on what is, for them, a normal working day  are also entitled to a stat day In lieu.  If a team member is on standby/on call on a public holiday then they are entitled to a full stat day in lieu. Note: Casual team members, who do not have any normal working days, have no ‘day in lieu’ entitlement.

Scheduling of stat days in lieu: Your team members may request when they would like to take a stat day in lieu, but as with all holiday time, this is subject to approval from you as their manager. If no agreement is reached, and/or it is over 12 months since they became entitled to the alternative holiday:

• You may, upon 14 days notice, require your team member to take the alternative holiday(s); or
• The team member may request these days be paid out in lieu. Note: This is not our standard practice. In the first instance, we should ensure that team members are taking their time in lieu as actual leave. Any payment, if granted, would be at ordinary pay.

Transfer of public holidays: If Christmas Day or Boxing Day, New Year’s Day or 2 January, Waitangi Day or Anzac Day falls on either a Saturday or Sunday, those public holidays shall be treated as follows:

• If the public holiday falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, and one or both of those days would otherwise be a working day for the team member, then the public holiday shall be observed and treated as falling on that day.
• If the public holiday falls on a Saturday and the day would not otherwise be a working day for team members, the public holiday shall be observed and treated as falling on the following Monday.
• If the public holiday falls on a Sunday and the day would not otherwise be a working day for team members, the public holiday shall be observed and treated as falling on the following Tuesday.

The Holidays Act 2003 provides for annual leave. See an explanation of the legal rights and obligations around annual leave. Our handling of annual leave is as follows: Basic entitlement: After twelve months continuous service, team members are entitled to the annual holidays specified in their employment agreement. Your team members may take their annual leave as they accrue it but it is your responsibility as their manager to ensure they do not take more leave than they have accrued.

Additional entitlements:

• PSA members/Staff employed on individual employment agreements (salaried): After 4 year’s continuous service, team members are entitled to 5 weeks of Annual Leave per year
• Labourers and drivers team members/staff employed on individual employment agreements (waged): After 6 year’s continuous service, team members are entitled to 5 weeks of Annual Leave per year

Taking of leave: Your team members must discuss with you, as their manager, when they will take holidays. We encourage team members to provide as much advance notice as possible (but at least two weeks) so we can schedule leave cover and therefore accommodate the team members’ wishes.

We may ‘close down’ for annual leave: Where we deem it operationally appropriate we may hold one “closedown period” for all or part of our operations and require team members to take some or all of their annual leave.  Except for a few staff who are required to work to keep some areas operational, our standard closedown period is for two weeks over Christmas and New Year.

Cashing up of annual leave: The Holiday Amendment Act 2010 introduced the potential for team members to cash-up a maximum of one week of annual holidays each entitlement year effective from 1 April 2011.  Our preference is for staff to take their annual leave each year with the emphasis on rest and recreation, rather than the cashing up of leave.  A team member may request to cash-up a maximum of 1 week’s leave in any entitlement year and any request would need to be an exception, based on financial hardship, as Council’s policy is not to cash up annual leave.  Again, the preference is for staff to take their annual leave each year.  Any exception requires the approval of the Organisational Development and Capability manager.  If a team member would like to request the cash-up of annual leave then they will need to complete the Cash-Up of Annual Leave form.  Note: This policy does not affect the cashing-up of Stat Days in Lieu.

Accumulating annual leave:   Our approach is to encourage staff to take most of their leave in the year it accrues, and to reduce their leave balance to 10 days or less annual leave.  The aim is to achieve a 20% reduction per annum in aggregated leave balances and leave liability across the organisation until this is achieved. Where staff have excessively high leave balances, they will be required to reduce their balance by up to 30% per year.

For further clarification please contact Organisational Development and Capability.

The Holidays Act 2003 provides for the sick leave for situations where the team member, their spouse or a dependant is sick or injured. Our approach to sick leave is as follows.

Entitlement: 

•  PSA members/Staff employed on individual employment agreements (salaried) team members: After six months continuous service with us, team members are entitled to five days paid sick leave.  Team members are able to use three of these five days in advance of this entitlement within each six month period. These can be used as domestic leave if their spouse, or a person who is dependent on them for care, is sick or injured.  After 12 months continuous service, team members are entitled to additional sick leave of up to five days pro-rated on their working days throughout that period i.e. if a team member works three days per week, they will receive three days at this time.  Team member will receive five days sick leave every year from their initial six month anniversary (so at 18, 30, 42 month etc anniversary), and then pro-rated sick leave from their twelve month anniversary (so 24, 36, 48 month etc)
• Labourers and drivers/staff employed on individual employment agreements (waged) team members: After three months continuous service with us, team members are entitled to three days paid sick leave, then after six months continuous service team members receive another two days of sick leave. These can be used as domestic leave if their spouse, or a person who is dependent on them for care, is sick or injured.  After 12 months continuous service, team members are entitled to additional five days sick leave and this entitlement will be received every six months after this.

Payment: Sick pay is calculated according to the relevant daily pay  for the day of absence. Accumulation: Team members can accumulate any unused entitlement each year. Verification: Team members may be required to produce a medical certificate to verify the illness or injury they have claimed, and to support their claim for sick leave in any of the following circumstances:

• After team members have been absent on sick leave for at least five consecutive calendar days;
• For sick leave periods of less than five days, you may at any time ask that your team member provides you with a medical certificate. The certificate should specify that they have been examined by a doctor and you should inform team members as soon as possible that a medical certificate is required. We would meet their reasonable expenses for producing a medical certificate.
• Where team members have taken sick leave in excess of their entitlement.
• When there is a pattern of sick leave developing which is causing concern.

If we request a medical certificate and it is not supplied, we may decide not to pay for sick leave. The time off will either be treated as annual leave (if the employee agrees) or leave without pay.

Additional sick leave: occasionally sick leave in excess of the person’s accumulated entitlement is required.  Council has a Sick Leave Gifting Policy which outlines how staff can gift additional sick leave and how staff can apply for additional sick leave.

Company required medical assessment: We may require a team member, at our expense, to attend a medical or professional assessment:

• To support or accompany an ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) claim;
• Where we have reasonable concerns the team member may not be fit to attend work or;
• For a second opinion about the nature and/or length of an anticipated period of leave and, where appropriate, to get a detailed report on the nature and origin of their incapacity, illness or injuries and their suitability for work (including alternative duties as available) and strategies for their appropriate rehabilitation or to assess your team members ability to return to their full time position in the future.

In these cases, team members consent to a copy of the results being supplied to us and copied to them. Refusal or failure to provide a medical certificate, or attend the assessment may be regarded as misconduct.  We will make a decision based on the information we have in front of us for consideration.

Alternative duties: During any recovery period, we may require team members to return to work to carry out alternative duties, either part-time or full-time, which are within their capabilities as assessed by their doctor or by the person who has assessed them.

Work-related illness or stress: We expect team members who become aware or suspect they may be suffering the effects of work-related illness or stress to notify their manager immediately and to co-operate by taking any required steps to reduce or remove the effects of such work-related illness or stress.

Work-related ACC claims: A team member who has a work related accident that requires them to file an ACC claim must tell the manager within one working day of making the claim and provide us with copies of all related documents. Team members are required to follow our accident and incident reporting procedures by reporting a health & safety event or risk in Council’s H&S Reporting Portal.  It is also really important that you or your team member contacts payroll as ACC payments can become complicated if not carefully managed.

Payment of sick leave whilst on ACC: If requested, sick leave may be paid in the first week and/or a day a week of sick leave may be paid as a top up to the ACC payments for the subsequent weeks.  Please contact payroll for clarification.

Team members are entitled to three days paid bereavement leave calculated on the relevant daily pay for each day’s leave, on the death of any of the following relatives: your spouse/partner, child, parent, brother or sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandparent, brother-in-law, sister-in-law or grandchild. In any other case, where we consider the team member has suffered bereavement, we may in each instance grant one day as paid bereavement/tangihanga leave. Requests for additional bereavement/tangihanga leave, on a paid or unpaid basis, shall be at the sole discretion of the Organisational Development and Capability Manager.

Notification of sick or bereavement/tangihanga leave: Team members must notify you, their manager, as early as possible on the day itself or in advance where possible, if they need to take sick or bereavement/tangihanga leave. Notification must be by phone where possible so managers have the opportunity to have a full discussion around the circumstances to help better understand the situation.  This is in order to ensure that work can be re-distributed as easily as possible with minimum disruption. This applies to rostered and non-rostered team members.  Refer to the employee’s individual or collective employment agreement for further guidance, especially on bereavement/tangihanga leave.

There are some team members who are still entitled to receive Long Service Leave.  These individual team members will have this entitlement stipulated in their employment agreements.

Under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act,  parental leave is available to team members who are having a child, and to their partners. It is also available to team members, male or female, who are adopting a child under five years old.

Eligibility: To apply for parental leave, a team member must have worked for us for an average of at least 10 hours a week for the immediately preceding 12 months, and they will be entitled to take up to 52 weeks of leave in total.  If your team member has been employed for between six and twelve months, then their entitlement will be 22 weeks maternity leave and we are obliged to hold their job open for the period of time the team member is absent.  See Parental Leave for information on parental leave and associated entitlements such as government-funded parental leave payments.

Types of leave: There are a variety of types of leave including special leave, maternity leave, paternity leave and extended leave.

Job protection: Where a team member takes parental leave of four weeks or less, the job must be kept open. When a team member applies for extended leave (up to 52 weeks), the Act presumes we will be able to grant the leave and keep the team member’s position open unless the job is defined as a key position or there is a redundancy situation. Applying for parental leave: There are clear rules and procedures for dealing with parental leave applications. Applications for parental leave must be in writing to you, the employer, in most cases at least three months in advance. There are some exceptions for medical or work problems during pregnancy, and special provisions for adoption. Team members applying for parental leave must supply a certificate from their doctor or midwife and provide notice of when they propose to return to work.

Paid parental leave: Eligible team members are also entitled to claim up to 26 weeks of their parental leave entitlement as paid leave. The payment, which is funded by the taxpayer through the Inland Revenue Department, can be taken by one parent or shared between two eligible partners (including partners in same sex relationships). The payment provides replacement income where the parent is taking parental leave from their existing employment. 

Where your team member is obliged to undertake Jury Service, the difference between the fees (excluding reimbursing payments), if any, paid to team members by the courts and their ordinary rate of pay shall be made up by RLC and paid to team members, provided that:

• Team members send a copy of the Payment Advice/Cheque that they receive from the Ministry of Justice to Payroll;
• Team members bank the cheque into their own personal bank account;
• Payroll will deduct the Jury Fees from the employee’s pay in the next appropriate pay period;
• Team members return to work immediately on any day when team members are not actually serving on a jury.

These payments shall be made for up to a maximum of five days in respect of each separate period of Jury Service, unless other specific arrangements have been made with the team members manager.  When a team member is on Jury Service, this needs to be recorded as a Leave Request in ESS (PayGlobal) on StaffNet.

Sometimes a team member will request additional unpaid leave.  This leave request will need to be discussed with the team members manager and is granted to the employee at the discretion of their manager.

If a team member requires time off to take part in a sporting overseas tour, they may be granted up to three (3) weeks leave per annum on full pay.  Any period exceeding three (3) weeks will need to be annual leave or leave without pay except in special circumstances.  Eligibility applies to participants and accredited officials of national teams, youth teams and disability teams.  Other special cases may be considered by the Chief Executive. The criteria for these events are:

• The sport must be commonly recognised as a sport and widely practised in New Zealand
• The sport must have a national organisation and conduct regular tournaments
• Selection must be made by the National Body or the sport concerned, normally by means of an open national competition, i.e. not provincial or representative of any particular group.

In these cases, the basis of selection may be restricted:

• Where a youth team is selected, there may be an age restriction, and;
• Where a disability team is selected, eligibility may be restricted to the disabled.

International competition must take place at some stage of the tour.

Employees may also be granted leave on full pay for international events within New Zealand based on the above criteria.  Leave on full pay will be granted for the period of the event, plus one (1) day for assembly/training and up to two (2) days for travelling time as necessary.

If a team member requires time off to take part in a cultural event, at an international level, special leave may be granted,  The criteria for granting this leave is the same as for National Representation leave. When considering whether to approve this leave, consider the public relations benefit to New Zealand.  Ideally selection should be on a national basis, but if selection is not or cannot be the result of a nationally conducted competition, approval for this leave can still be granted.

If your team member is required to undertake territorial leave to perform military duties and/or training, special leave on full pay shall be granted.  Any salary that the team member is paid by the Defence Force during the period of territorial leave, must be reimbursed back to Council.  If the team member has elected to take leave without pay to perform these duties, any salary paid by the Defence Force will not need to reimbursed to Council.

There is no entitlement to special leave, however, if you believe that circumstances warrant approving special leave for a team member, you have the discretion to approve this.  When granting special leave, consider the following:

• The reason for the special leave
• The length of the special leave
• Is there any other type of leave that the team member can use

If you have any queries or would like advice about special leave, contact the Organisational Development & Capability team.

This leave provides protection for victims of domestic violence and supports employees staying in paid employment.  It provides for employers to provide short term flexible working arrangements, domestic violence leave and ensuring there is no adverse treatment in employment of persons affected by domestic violence.

Council’s domestic violence leave is outlined in our Support for Victims Policy.  If you have any queries about this leave, contact the Organisational Development & Capability team.

Team members covered by the Labourers and Drivers CEA or a waged individual employment agreement are entitled to three  days special domestic leave after the delivery of their baby.  This leave is to enable them to provide care to their partner or other children during this period.