How will extended sick leave, Covid-10 vaccination and other new changes will affect your business and employees?
Here is what you need to know about extended sick leave, Covid-19 vaccination, updating employment agreements and taking bereavement leave to cover miscarriage and stillbirth.
Sick Leave
From 24 July 2021, the number of sick leave days will increase to 10 days per year. This means that employees will be getting extra five days of sick leave (including caring for a sick or injured dependant) either when they reach their next entitlement anniversary or after reaching six months’ employment. The maximum amount of unused sick leave that an employee can be entitled to will remain 20 days.
Up-to-date Employment Agreements
All employees must have a written employment agreement with the latest updated information, e.g. position, duties and responsibilities, hours of work, salary/hourly rate, type of employment, trial period. Employment NZ has an excellent tool that helps to build an employment agreement within a few minutes, and you can add any additional clauses.
Bereavement Leave to cover miscarriage and stillbirth
The latest law changes will allow employees to take up to three days of paid bereavement leave if they or their partner experience a miscarriage or stillbirth. In the event of surrogacy or adoption, if the pregnancy ends up by miscarriage or stillbirth, the eligibility of taking up to three days bereavement leave still applies.
The bereavement leave does not have to be taken straight away and can be taken at any time and for any matter related to the bereavement. The stand-down period of 6 months applies to new employees. There is no requirement to produce proof of pregnancy, miscarriage or stillbirth.
Covid-19 vaccination in the workplace
There are ways your business can support the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, and the most effective are: removing costs, travel or time off work removed. You could also: allow your employer to get vaccinated during work hours without needing to take time off work or using annual leave; provide up-to-date and relevant information about vaccination from the MOH or DHB; if asked by MOH or DHB, organise vaccination at your workplace.
If they refuse to be vaccinated, firing or dismissing employees should be the last option, as advised by Employment NZ. Every business will need to decide if there are any positions and duties that vaccinated employees can only perform depending on whether your work is covered by Health Order or for health and safety reasons. If you think there may be roles like this in your business, you will first need to evaluate them for Covid-19 exposure and transmission risks. Suppose you identify the positions where the risks are high, or your employees fall under a Health Order. In that case, there are several things you must take into consideration before dismissing an employee:
– Conducting employees and the union (if applicable) for lawful solution
– Making changes in work arrangements or duties performed by the employee permanently or for some time
– Offering and agreeing with an employee to some type of leave
– Restructuring business or the work
– Medical incapacity where employers should follow any contractual process including notice period and compensation
Before considering changes to roles or work, it’s essential to consult with employees and agree that changes to their work are possible and desirable. This may include location, hours of work, change of duties, transfer to other positions that no longer have a high risk of exposure. There may be cases where vaccination needs to be postponed due to some medical reasons, which means that specific tasks performed by the employee will need to be postponed too.
You cannot make your employee get vaccinated. Employers can only require that specific roles are performed by employees vaccinated if a Health Order covers the work or if a risk assessment shows a high risk of getting and infecting others with COVID-19.
If a Health Order does not cover your business, and you think vaccination of your employees might be needed, you must evaluate Covid-19 exposure risk. To do that, you must carry out a risk assessment for exposure to Covid-19, which includes two main factors: how likely the employee is to be exposed to Covid-19 while performing the role and the potential community spread. Suppose there is a high likelihood that the employees may be exposed to Covid, which would be significant for other people. In that case, the role likely needs to be performed by a vaccinated person.
You cannot make your employee get vaccinated for any other reasons, as it would be considered as a form of medical treatment solely for a marketing benefit.
In a situation where it has been identified that the role needs to be performed by the vaccinated person, but the employee does not intend to be vaccinated, employers should work through the process with the employee in good faith before making the final decision.
If vaccination is required, you may ask employees to take annual leave, but you cannot force them without their consent. You can direct employees to take annual leave but only if they have annual leave available and a notice of at least 14 days is given by the employer.
Please note that if an employer has directed their employee to take unpaid leave, this could be seen as the employer unlawfully suspending the employee.
A person’s vaccination status is personal information, which means it can be collected, stored, and shared according to the Privacy Act. Businesses can only ask candidates if they are vaccinated when the requirements of the role justify it.