Employers are offering to pay workers a "default" extra rate for beavering away on public holidays, but are alarmed that unionists want this applied to Sunday shifts.
Business New Zealand representatives, part of an employer-union advisory group on changes to the Holidays Act, say the holiday rate should be time-and-a-half, aswell as a day off later in lieu, so long as payments can be varied by agreement with workers.
The Council of Trade Unions, on the other hand, wants time-and-a-half to be set as a non-negotiable minimum rate, in line with both Labour Party and Alliance election policies.
It also wants this to become a default payment - one that can be varied by agreement - for Sundays.
But employers say Sunday is no longer regarded as a holiday, so it has no place in the Holidays Act.
Under the act, Sundays and public holidays attract a default payment of double time for workers in factories and "undertakings", such as warehouses, but not in other workplaces, such as shops.
The offer to extend default payments for public holidays to the rest of the workforce, although at a lower rate, is a compromise by employers.
But CTU president Ross Wilson said unions were compromising by accepting a drop in the default rate from double time, which was standard for holidays and Sundays in industrial awards preceding the Employment Contracts Act, 1991.
Unions also want bereavement leave added to the present minimum of five days' special leave a year, which includes sick days.
