Happy holidays: the ‘Mondayisation’ of public holidays

By Tim Oldfield

As published in NZLawyer magazine

With effect from 1 December 2004, section 4(1A) of the Employment Relations Act 2000 was inserted, which added further guidance to the duty of good faith. Many commentators asked at the time whether you could, or should, legislate a relationship in this way.

Bearing in mind work is where most of us spend the most significant portion of our waking hours, it is not surprising that employment, and changes to employment laws, can have a big impact on our daily lives.

Employment and employment laws are inherently about relationships and managing those relationships to achieve business success. Of course, the legislation of relationships in a different sense has attracted huge media attention with the passage of the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013, which received royal assent on 19 April 2013. This legislation allows same sex marriage and dominated media coverage of Parliament for some time. Indeed that change largely overshadowed another important employment law change.

The same day the marriage legislation received royal assent, important employment law legislation received the same treatment. The Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day) Amendment Act 2013, provides for Anzac Day and Waitangi Day to be shifted to the following Monday if those public holidays fell on a weekend.

This "Mondayisation" already happens for the Christmas public holidays, but there was significant debate about whether it was appropriate to "Mondayise" holidays of national significance. Anzac Day and Waitangi Day were always observed on the days on which they fell, even if this occurred during the weekend, as they were considered to be sacred days in our national psyche. Employers were also concerned about the potential cost of the reforms. On the other hand, the status quo meant that most Monday to Friday workers missed out on a day off where the public holidays fell on a weekend, which happened every few years. It won't happen again until 2015.

Labour MP David Clark introduced a private member's bill to address the situation. While National did not support the Bill, it did not use its veto powers to prevent the Bill from passing with majority support, in spite of a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment estimate that the Bill would cost up to $200 million for each of the relevant public holidays.

The Government has the power, given by the House's Standing Orders, to veto...