What you should know about Annual Leave and managing holidays

Managing staff isn't just about what happens at work, it's also about managing holidays.

As an employer, you're responsible for keeping accurate up-to-date records about much-deserved time off.

  * Annual holiday entitlement does not expire; staff are entitled to their holidays until they take them. Only one week's leave per year may be cashed up and only with your consent

* Businesses need to be reasonable in considering requests; you can't unreasonably refuse an employee who wants to take annual leave

* However, employers can decline unpaid leave requests or advance holiday requests.

* You can only require an employee to take a holiday if you can’t agree on when leave should be taken. In this event, staff need 14 days’ notice.

* A business can’t make an employee take their annual holiday in advance, except when the company has an annual closedown

What to know about public holidays

Following the introduction of Matariki in 2022, employees in New Zealand get 12 public holidays a year. But what happens if your business needs to stay open on a public holiday?

When employees work all or part of a public holiday, businesses must:

• pay staff at least time and a half for the hours they work, and

• if the day is one they would normally have worked, give them an alternative holiday/a day in lieu

  You can only require a team member to work on a public holiday if it falls on a day they would usually be working and their employment agreement requires them to work the public holiday.