24 July 2008 Media Statement

National gets rid of four weeks annual leave

Four weeks annual leave will be effectively abolished by National, Progressive leader Jim Anderton said today.

Four weeks leave was a Progressive Party initiative in the last parliamentary term.

National today announced it would allow the fourth week of leave to be "exchanged for cash", and getting rid of the holiday.

"All National is saying is that it would allow people to be paid for working. How generous.

"If the fourth week's leave can be 'exchanged for cash', then there is no four weeks minimum holiday, nor do we know how much 'cash' Mr Key had in mind.

"When the minimum annual leave entitlement was increased from three weeks to four, it was the first increase in holiday entitlements in New Zealand since 1973.

"National's back-to-the-past holiday law will snatch holidays from people who have the least bargaining power. John Key has just returned from two weeks holiday of his own. We can assume and even congratulate him for knowing the value of holidays for his own family. But he wants to get rid of them for others.

"It is no coincidence that National is hiding this dramatic slash in working conditions into the second-to-last paragraph of its vague and non-specific policy announcement."

ENDS

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