"Relevant Daily Pay creates a Nonsense"

"Relevant Daily Pay creates a Nonsense"

"Implementation of the new Holidays Act has been a nightmare for small business" says Sue Thorne, CEO of the Early Childhood Council.

The additional record keeping required to establish entitlements to leave and complex calculations for holiday and sick pay are time-consuming for the pay clerk and confusing for employees and employers alike.

The use of relevant daily pay to calculate holiday and sick pay has increased costs and created the ludicrous situation of paying a teacher for staff meetings they do not attend.

"The reason we pay our teachers overtime for staff meetings outside their normal working hours is to encourage and compensate attendance, not non-attendance" said Mrs Thorne.

When the Government said it was 'modernising the law' we, perhaps foolishly, expected modernisation to include simplification.

It was very disappointing to discover that to this government at least, 'modern', in the case of employment law means more complex, more record keeping, and more costs.

"I fail to see how complicating the Holidays Act to this extent can possibly contribute positively to productivity or workplace relationships" says Mrs Thorne.

The Early Childhood Council urges the Select Committee considering the Holidays Amendment Bill to heed calls to replace 'relevant daily pay' with 'ordinary pay' to redress this nonsensical situation.

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