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Speaker 1: Healler Duple see at Heather, don't freak out too much.

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Speaker 1: We are just maturing and our labor rates right now

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Speaker 1: are so high that we're not just labour like that anymore.

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Speaker 1: And our country is more about innovation and technology and

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Speaker 1: we're putting them putting stuff in boxes and pulling it

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Speaker 1: out of the ground. That's re mic and that's a

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Speaker 1: very positive way of looking at shut down of the

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Speaker 1: manufacturing eighteen past five now and academic reckons. The government

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Speaker 1: has missed the chance to improve our laws around sick leave.

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Speaker 1: So there's a bill before Parliament at the moment that's

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Speaker 1: intended to bring the two thousand and three Holidays Act

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Speaker 1: up to date with the modern working environment, but it

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Speaker 1: doesn't significantly change the way we deal with sick leaf.

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Speaker 1: Associate Professor Paula Okaine from Otago University's Business schoolers with

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Speaker 1: US high Paula Kyodo, Hey, so do you reckon we

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Speaker 1: should be able to accrue the sick leave, have it

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Speaker 1: roll over the unused sickle year of year after year.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, I think if we could allow that sick

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Speaker 2: leave to accrue and actually a crue when you move

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Speaker 2: jobs as well, so more of a centralized system. I

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Speaker 2: would give people access to matter sick leave. You might

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Speaker 2: discourage misuse of sick leave, and when people are actually

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Speaker 2: sick for a longer period of time, they're better covered.

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Speaker 2: So it would really help to deal with issues around

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Speaker 2: people with long term illness, for example, and those who

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Speaker 2: move jobs quite a lot.

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Speaker 1: A crew to what how high could you take it

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Speaker 1: before it kept out?

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Speaker 2: I mean potentially you'd want to put a limit of

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Speaker 2: a year or something like that on it, but yeah,

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Speaker 2: it could be as much as that, and at ten

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Speaker 2: days occurring a year, you're probably at what's that maybe

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Speaker 2: twenty years before you'd have a full crew of working days.

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Speaker 1: Do you know think people will take the mickey where

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Speaker 1: they will, They'll get to a certain point where they've

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Speaker 1: got a fair amount, maybe they're thinking of leaving the

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Speaker 1: job start sort of faking the sicknesses.

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Speaker 2: I think that would be really difficult with long term

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Speaker 2: sick I can get it for a day or two,

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Speaker 2: but I think if you're actually properly long term sick,

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Speaker 2: you need very good evidence for that. So actually probably

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Speaker 2: takes away some of that ticking the mickey.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and do you think we need different types of

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Speaker 1: sick leave as well.

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Speaker 2: I think we need good sick leave. I think in

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Speaker 2: most countries it covers off the different types of leave,

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Speaker 2: whether you're caring for people, or caring for children, or

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Speaker 2: caring for older people. And if we create that a crule,

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Speaker 2: we actually give people more in the long run, hopefully

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Speaker 2: because they've got those days that follow over. So I'm

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Speaker 2: not sure that we need different types, but I think

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Speaker 2: if we had that a cruel it would make it fairer.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Paula, thank you very much. By the way, have

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Speaker 1: you calculated how much this might cost?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I have not done that, But it may also

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Speaker 2: reduce some of the costs for the government in relation

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Speaker 2: to support it, living payments and so on. So I'd

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Speaker 2: say there's a good thing to do for the econ

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Speaker 2: economists out there to really look at how much it

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Speaker 2: might cost. But it would be the employers paying ten

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Speaker 2: days a year every year, regardless of other somebody takes

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Speaker 2: that sick leave or.

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Speaker 1: Not, right, Paula, thanks very much, appreciate Paula. Okay, thank you,

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Speaker 1: Associate professor at Otaga University Business School. For more from

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Speaker 1: Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd

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