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Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987

Payment for parental leave - Amount of parental leave payment

71P: Amount of payment not affected by other non-statutory entitlements

You could also call this:

“Your parental leave pay stays the same even if you get other job perks”

If you are entitled to parental leave payments, this entitlement won’t be reduced or affected by any other benefits you might have in your employment agreement. Your employer can’t decrease any other benefits in your employment agreement just because you’re getting parental leave payments, unless you agree to it. If your employer tries to reduce your other entitlements without your agreement, they could be fined by the Employment Relations Authority. The Employment Relations Act 2000 has rules about how this works, and these rules apply to parental leave payments too.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM121733.

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71OA: Annual adjustment of minimum rates of parental leave payment for self-employed persons, or

“Yearly changes to lowest parental leave pay for self-employed people no longer apply”

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71Q: Payments must come out of public money, or

“The government uses public money to pay for parental leave”

Part 7A Payment for parental leave
Amount of parental leave payment

71PAmount of payment not affected by other non-statutory entitlements

  1. An entitlement to a parental leave payment under this Part is not affected or reduced by any other entitlement that an employee may have under the terms of any employment agreement.

  2. An employer must not, without the agreement of the employee, reduce any other entitlement that the employee may have under the terms of any employment agreement because of the employee's entitlement to a payment under this Part.

  3. An employer who fails to comply with this section is liable to a penalty imposed by the Employment Relations Authority under the Employment Relations Act 2000 in respect of each employee to whom the purported reduction applies.

  4. Sections 133 to 136 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 apply with necessary modifications.

Notes
  • Section 71P: inserted, on , by section 4(2) of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave) Amendment Act 2002 (2002 No 7).
  • Section 71P(1): amended, on , by section 72 of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 8).