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Employment Relations Act 2000

Employment relations education leave

73: Union entitled to allocate employment relations education leave

You could also call this:

“Unions can give workers special days off to learn about their job rights, but there are rules about how many days they can give.”

A union can give employment relations education leave to workers who are eligible. This means the union can choose which eligible workers get to take this special leave.

The union can only give out a certain number of days of this leave each year. The number of days is worked out using a method explained in section 74. However, if the employer agrees, the union can give out more days than this limit.

For each eligible worker, the union can give up to 5 days of this leave in a year. Again, if the employer agrees, the union can give a worker more than 5 days.

If the union doesn’t give out all the leave days by the end of the year, those days are lost. But if the employer agrees, the unused days can be saved for the next year.

Remember, the employer has to agree if the union wants to give out more days than the usual limits, or if they want to save unused days for later.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM59949.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Rights and equality > Anti-discrimination
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72: Minister to approve employment relations education, or

“The government decides which classes can teach people about work rights and laws.”

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74: Calculation of maximum number of days of employment relations education leave, or

“ This law explains how to figure out how many days off workers can get for learning about their job rights, based on how many people work at their company. ”

Part 7 Employment relations education leave

73Union entitled to allocate employment relations education leave

  1. A union is entitled to allocate employment relations education leave to eligible employees in accordance with this Part.

  2. The maximum number of days of employment relations education leave that a union is entitled to allocate in a year in respect of an employer's eligible employees is the number of days calculated in accordance with section 74, unless the employer agrees to the allocation of additional days.

  3. The maximum number of days of employment relations education leave that a union is entitled to allocate in a year to an eligible employee is 5 days, unless the employee's employer agrees to the allocation of additional days.

  4. Employment relations education leave expires if it is not allocated by the end of the year in respect of which it is calculated under section 74, unless the employer agrees that the leave may be carried forward to the next year.