Select committee opposes bill to give parents paid leave for parent-teacher interviews

A bill to give parents four hours of annual leave for parent-teacher interviews has been rejected by a select committee. Photo / 123RF

A bill that would have given parents four hours of paid leave each year to go to parent-teacher interviews has had the thumbs-down from a parliamentary select committee.

The Holidays (Parent Teacher Interview Leave) Amendment Bill was put forward by Labour's MP for Ōtaki, Terisa Ngobi, who said it would improve equity by helping more parents engage with their children's education.

Labour, Te Paati Māori and the Greens supported the bill at its first reading, while National and Act opposed it.

But the education select committee, which has a Labour majority and is chaired by Labour's Marja Lubeck, has recommended the bill not pass, saying it could confuse employees and employers and interfere with current work to overhaul the Holidays Act.

That means the bill is likely to be voted down at its second reading, if it is not withdrawn.

Many of the 103 submissions on the bill were from employers who were firmly opposed because of the cost to business. Retail NZ said it would discriminate against workers who didn't have school-aged children, while the Employers and Manufacturers Association said the bill could be abused by people who didn't need the leave.

The Office of the Children's Commissioner strongly supported the bill, as did the PPTA and many parents. There were also calls to increase the leave to four hours per child, and to add extra leave for travel time.

Another group representing parents of vision-impaired children said the bill would make a big difference to the parents of children with disabilities, who must attend numerous extra interviews at school each year.

But a report from the Attorney-General found the bill inadvertently discriminated on the basis of age and disability because it didn't apply to parents whose children turned 19 part-way through their last year at school, or students in state schools who needed specialist education.

The select committee said it could also complicate matters for the overhaul of the Holidays Act which MBIE was still working through.

The committee recommended the bill not proceed, although it commended Ngobi for pursuing a bill she felt would address inequality in the education system.

"However, we think it would be best if this work could be incorporated into the work MBIE is currently doing on the Holidays Act."

MBIE's work includes clarifying the rules around annual leave payments and making them easier to understand. Legislation amending the act is expected to be introduced in 2022.

A spokesperson for MBIE confirmed to the Herald the ministry was aware of the select committee's recommendation.

"We are working on implementing the 22 recommendations from the Holidays Act Taskforce and will engage with the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister on the select committee's recommendation."

Chris Baillie, Act's spokesperson on the select committee, said the bill would have been "harmful" and congratulated Labour for rejecting it.

Act MP Chris Baillie, who is on the Education and Workforce Committee that rejected the bill. Photo / Supplied

Baillie - a small business owner - said the party had shown it was ignorant about how business worked.

"Only the Labour Party could come up with a policy so bad that even the Labour Party rejects it," Baillie said. "Once the bill got to select committee and experts explained to Labour the consequences, even Labour could see how damaging it was."

Labour seemed to want to make owning a business as hard as possible, he said.

"Business owners want to do right by their staff, but they need to be able to afford to keep people employed. It's no good to anyone if it becomes too expensive to keep people on the payroll."

But Susan Warren, chief executive of Comet Education Trust, said the whole of society would have gained from the change, including employers who would have better-educated people joining their workforce as well as happier employees.

Warren believed the vast majority of workforces would let parents take time off to go to parent-teacher interviews, but some wouldn't - and some parents felt they couldn't ask.

"It sends a really powerful message to everybody, including to the parents that going along to my kid's teacher-parent meeting actually is important."

Comet's submission pointed to research showing longer, student-led parent-teacher interviews were better attended and linked to NCEA gains - but those interviews were very hard to organise outside school hours.

Warren was disappointed the bill hadn't passed but it made sense to incorporate it into other work.

"If they don't that will be really disappointing, so let's not lose this opportunity. It's a really simple thing that could make quite a big difference."