Potential Holiday Act revamp will ‘remove key business pain point’

'Holidays' can be some of the busiest times of the year for modern small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) and startups.

Not just because holidays often coincide with some of the busiest times of the year, but also the sheer amount of admin that accompanies them.

This is why, according to MYOB, businesses will be happy for any changes to the Holiday Act that make it easier to administer. MYOB says the act is dated as the labour market has changed substantially since the legislation's introduction in 2003.

Minister of workplace relations Iain Lees-Galloway has a similar view as he has just announced the establishment of a tripartite taskforce to recommend changes to the Holiday Act.

"Businesses have been tearing their hair out trying to comply with the Holidays Act. Owners will be hoping the taskforce's proposals take the pain out of administering leave entitlements," says MYOB general manager Carolyn Luey.

"There have been several high-profile examples of both big and small employers being caught out by the Act's complexity. Business owners will be looking for changes that make it easier to determine exactly what an employee is owed.

Around a third of the Kiwi workforce are serviced with MYOB payroll solutions and Luey says after reviewing the various situations, complying with the Holidays Act has been identified as key pain point for many business owners.

"Reforming the Act to make it easier to administer will be good for everyone. It'll make payroll time less stressful for business owners and mean employees less likely to miss out on entitlements," says Luey.

In fact, MYOB's recent Business Monitor survey of over 1,000 local owners of SMB enterprises found that 68 percent support reforming the Holidays Act to simplify how leave entitlements are calculated, while 18 percent say calculating and tracking leave entitlements and balances is a key pain point for their business.

"MYOB looks forward to engaging with the Government on this review given any changes that are proposed by the Taskforce and put into legislation will need to be built into our software packages," says Ms Luey.

"Technology can take the stress out of administering payroll, if the legislation is easy to interpret and implement. We need a Holidays Act that reflects modern ways of working for New Zealand businesses and employees.