On December 1st, Workplace Relations & Safety Minister - Labour MP Michael Wood introduced the first reading of the proposed Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill, to increase the sick leave entitlement from five (5) days after six months continuous employment to 10 days.  

This draft bill has been through its first reading in the house and is currently before the Select Committee.  If you click on the link above you can read the bill in full, check on the bills progress and offer feedback on how this could positively or negatively affect you and your business.  Submissions are open until January 22nd, 2021.

10 days sick leave has the potential to make things hard for business owners, especially small to medium sized businesses and when you couple that with the Labour Party's election promise of the proposed minimum wage increase to $20 per hour due to take place in April 2021 it is really going to put a lot of strain on some employers.

Flip this around and there are some employers who already offer this - there are even a few larger employers out there who offer unlimited (within reason of course) sick leave.  What have they learnt from this and why do they keep doing it?  Their staff feel valued!  They feel cared about - genuinely, that they are truly part of the "team" and that their health and wellbeing is important and all the money in the world cannot buy that kind of employee goodwill.

So yes it has the potential to be expensive, but it also could come with some big pluses.  There is always the chance you could have an employee or two try to take advantage of it, so it will be vital to make sure your employee contracts are up to date and that sick leave is clearly defined and how long the employee can be away before they must supply a medical certificate.

Right now though, I strongly encourage you to read the proposed bill and make a submission.  At the time of writing this there were no submissions to the bill.  It is the silly season, but I do hope some of you will take the opportunity to comment on this proposal so that it doesn't just sneak through under cover of Christmas/New Year.