The Reserve Bank offers employees five weeks’ annual leave, 15 days’ wellness leave and a $500 wellness allowance.
Employees took an average of 7.42 wellness days last year, half of their entitlement.
The bank’s operating budget is $155 million, down from $200m last fiscal year.
The Reserve Bank’s employee perks sounded pretty cushy last week when the New Zealand Taxpayer’s Union painted the place as a “wellness retreat”.
The public sector organisation offers employees scope to work from home, an $800 contribution to setting up a home office, a $500-a-year wellness allowance, fiveweeks’ annual leave and the ability to buy an additional three weeks. But the fattest plum is seemingly 15 days’ wellness leave per year.
But those wellness days, which appear to take the total base leave to an extraordinary eight weeks, aren’t as fabulous as they first appear.
Like a small cohort of employers who favour the language of “wellness” and “wellbeing”, the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) rolled its statutory requirement for sick leave into wellness leave in mid-2021 – a change that was concurrent with the doubling of the minimum sick leave entitlement from five to 10 days.
So the bank offers an additional five days for wellness (or sickness) but beyond the semantics, there isn’t much difference in how the leave can be used: Employment New Zealand notes a wide range of legitimate uses for sick leave, including “stress”.
On a tightened budget, the RBNZ is preparing to cut staff and may rein in benefits. Photo / RNZ
It’s difficult to get an exact read on just how common (or uncommon) an extra five days’ wellness or sickness leave are, but there’s an indication in work done by the remuneration advisory firm Strategic Pay.
Its latest survey found that 40% of New Zealand employers provide five weeks’ annual leave for “at least some staff” and 18% offer more than the legally required 10 days’ sick leave.
Of those offering extra sick leave, roughly three-quarters are in the public sector and the remainder are in the private sector. The extent to which they augment the basic requirement is not clear.
What is clear is that RBNZ employees tend, on average, to treat their wellness days as leave to be used if needed (albeit within generous guidelines), rather than a leave provision to be fully exhausted.
An RBNZ spokeswoman told the Herald that staff took an average 7.42 days of wellness leave in the last fiscal year – half their entitlement.
“‘Wellness leave’ replaced ‘sick leave’ to encourage our people to take personal responsibility for staying physically, emotionally and psychologically healthy,” she said.
“While sick leave was reactive, providing time off to recover from illness or injury, wellness leave provides both proactive and reactive support.
“It gives employees the opportunity to take time away from work to maintain their overall wellness, helping to prevent illness in the first place.”
By comparison, according to a BusinessNZ-Southern Cross Health Society survey, Kiwis took an average of 5.5 days’ sick leave in 2022.
The RBNZ also makes a 4% contribution to employees’ KiwiSaver accounts where the employee contributes 4% or more.
Cathy Hendry, managing director of Strategic Pay, described this provision as better than average, but not highly unusual.
Financial Markets Authority
Hendry also said that, for its financial and highly numerical jobs, the Reserve Bank likely competes with financial services in the private sector, which almost undoubtedly pay higher salaries.
Private sector entities themselves, such as ANZ bank, declined to provide the Herald with specific details about their benefits policies.
“Where public organisations can compete [with the private sector] is often on workplace culture, flexibility and benefits,” Hendry said.
The RBNZ offers a roughly similar set of benefits to those of the conduct regulator for the financial markets, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), an Independent Crown Entity which, alongside Treasury, often competes for staff with the RBNZ.
The FMA provides employees five weeks’ leave, including five days of office shutdown over the Christmas period. In addition, staff receive: an additional five days’ annual “loyalty leave” after three years of employment; a days’ leave per year to volunteer their time; and an extra day of leave at Matariki (in addition to the public holiday).
FMA employees can buy an extra five days’ annual leave, while RBNZ employees can buy an additional three weeks’ annual leave (at a cost of 2% of their salary per week).
The FMA offers no work-from-home set-up allowance and no wellness allowance or leave.
However, it does provide permanent employees with a health and life insurance package.
A spokeswoman said it was “not possible” to provide the value of the benefit per employee: “This is because the premium (value to the staff member) differs pending age, gender, salary etc. There are also commercial sensitivities limiting what we can disclose, given this was negotiated with our insurance broker – Aon.“
She said the benefit does not extend to employees’ spouses or dependent children, but that this can be added at the employees’ expense.
The FMA contributes 4% to employees’ KiwiSaver accounts when the employee contributes 3% or more.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis reined in the RBNZ's budget, starting this year. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Treasury and Public Service
Within the Public Service, the core departments and ministries of government, the policy since 2009 has been that maximum leave provisions across individual and collective employment agreements should not exceed five weeks (25 days).
As of 2022, 75% of fulltime-equivalent (FTE) employees fall within this maximum. However, Public Service Commission analysis from 2023 indicates that the majority of the remainder of employees are grandfathered on leave provisions that are more generous.
Treasury provides five weeks’ annual leave and employees have the option to buy additional leave, subject to approval and the “business needs” of the department.
Treasury provides only statutory sick leave and no wellness leave, but it does give permanent employees a “wellbeing assistance allowance” of up to $500 per year.
A spokesman said this can be used for “gym memberships, classes providing regular physical activity, working-from-home equipment and similar activities”.
Employer contributions to KiwiSaver are 3%.
Budget and staff cuts at RBNZ
The number of staff at the RBNZ exploded – along with some expansion of the organisation’s remit – from 255 FTEs in mid-2018 to a current 625 FTEs. But that number is under review.
The RBNZ’s latest funding agreement, signed with the Government, provides an operating budget of $155 million in the current fiscal year, falling to $145m the following year (with some limited scope to carry over underspends) – the agreement provides an average $150m per annum over the next five years.
That’s a heavy reduction from recent years – operating expenses at the bank ballooned to $200m in the last fiscal year, according to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, and the bank’s annual report shows operating expenses were $182m the previous year.
The tug of war between previous RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr and the Government over funding led to Orr’s resignation earlier this year, according to the bank.
The RBNZ spokeswoman said the organisation has already reviewed both its executive leadership team and its leadership team and is now moving to a review of the overall bank structure and staffing.
Two deputy governors resigned following Orr’s departure and were not replaced, and the leadership team has reduced by eight positions to 20.
“This phase includes a formal consultation with the wider organisation. At this time, no final decisions regarding staffing numbers have been confirmed ... ” the spokeswoman said.
She also said that no decisions have been made relating to any potential changes to employee benefits.
