This whole "equal footing with Australia" is getting a bit long in the tooth. New Zealand will never be on the same footing as Australia. Australia will always have better salaries, better infrastructure, higher standards of living, etc. Well for the foreseeable future anyway.

i dont need 4 weeks of sitting on my hands, i'd rather work, earn the company money, and pay off my debts faster.

and we wonder why NZ is turning to crap... these stupid labour laws mean the company gets boned, pay us less, which means we get less tro put back into the economy.

Aunty Helens policy makers were obviously listening to azy people.. like the DOL bludgers that kept them in power.

My company lets employees buy and sell leave - ie last year when I went on honeymoon I bought 3 weeks of leave to add to my entitlement - it meant my salary dropped by a nominal rate over the year in question but I ended up not having to take unpaid leave. Our basic entitlement is 5 weeks, a lot of people sell their fifth week and get a little bit more money.

Add to this flexible working hours, an infrastructure set up to allow people to work from home, and we enjoy a very low absence rate.

Anne - 'spend 16 hours a day away from work' - yeah right! The 8 hour workday in the professional workforce is a myth. Most companies expect you to be in at work by 0830 and leave at 1700 or 1730; most people either work at their desk or don't leave the office for lunch. That's 9 hours per day, solid, plus phone calls after work, work on the weekends, projects, and all of the other little events packaged under 'and other duties as required on an ad-hoc basis'. I'd be delighted to work 8 hours a day and get an actual lunch break.

If the company agrees to then fine. But I do not think it should be obligatory to companies to pay out for unused holiday leave. Most employers understand that a good worker needs a good balance between work and family time, holiday, or rest. There are more important things in life than a weeks extra wages.

A good move from National.

What is bad about giving the worker the choice? I don't see the problem

Ive just cashed in a portion of my leave as I have so much of it owing...and being that I dont often take holidays other than the corporate shutdown period over xmas.

Well guess what I can well remember when weekend trading came in and you were assured by the then Govt. (National ) that you would not be forced to work it if you didn't want to. Then along came the contracts and hey presto you had included in your contract that you must work one day of the weekend. Well that was goodbye to family time. Guess it won't be too long before you will be made by your employer to sell off one week of your holiday. I suppose Pete #24 that you don't have any holidays so guess you won't be "goofing off. Jon #30 there are other countries overseas that way more annual holidays than we do.

Suzie #15 No, NZ isn't the only country that loses 2 public holiday a year when they fall on a week-end. In France "Monday-isation" is unheard of. You can potentially end up losing 7 or more days a year in a bad year. I found "Monday-isation" amazing when I moved to the UK and then NZ.

Having said that France does have 5 weeks paid leave a year, probably since post-WWII, and has had a max 35 hour-working week for several years which in actual fact means everyone gets an extra 8 weeks paid leave a year (taking into account that most companies/people didn't change the "regular" 40-70 hours weeks practice and employees get credited extra weeks holiday in exchange). In that respect (and many others eg parental leave, childcare, dole, various social services) NZ is a rather behind but it's a different economy too.

Employee: Boss can I have the day off tomorrow? Boss: So you want a day off. Let's take a look at what you are asking for. There are 365 days per year available for work. There are 52 weeks per year in which you already have 2 days off per week, leaving 261 days. Of those 261 days you work each year, you spend 16 hours a day away from work, using up 174 days and leaving only 87 days worked. Of those 87 days you spend ½ hour a day on lunch, using up 1.81 days and leaving, call it 85 days. Your coffee breaks of ½ hour a day use up 1.7 days, leaving 83.3 days. You take 5 days off sick each year leaving 78.3 days. Statutory holidays take another 11 days leaving 67.3 days. We give you 20 days annual leave each year leaving only 47.3 days and I'll be damned if you are going to take a day off! (makes my salary look a hell of a lot better)

Take the hoilday not the cash, I traveled a few places in my time and see how hard kiwi's work, we are not far behind Japan when i comes to working hours. People should be made to take hoildays to spend time with there family. beacuse some people i know work to much and neglect there family and it only when there mates pressure them to take time off they then realise that they should do it more often. When your dead that extra few hundred bucks aint going to matter.

work to live not live to work.