This November, workers get to decide who runs the country for the next three years. The choice could not be clearer, because we have spent this term watching the Government rip away rights and protections that workers fought for decades to win.
The list is long. The Government gutted pay equity, stripping billions from the future wages of workers in care, health, and community work. It scrapped Fair Pay Agreements, the one tool that could have lifted pay across whole industries like cleaning and security. It brought back 90-day trials, so new workers can be sacked without a reason. It passed a law that lets employers label workers as “specified contractors”, shutting them out of employment rights, such as minimum wage, sick leave, holiday pay, and the right to challenge their own employment status. It narrowed personal grievances, and scrapped the 30-day rule that gave new workers the protection of the collective agreement from day one for 30 days.
Now the Government is coming for our leave. The Employment Leave Bill will change how leave works, and not in our favour. Hundreds of thousands of people, including E tū members, will lose pay every time they take leave if this Bill goes through.
These are not abstract law changes. They land hard on the lowest-paid workers, who are more likely to be women, Māori, Pasifika, and migrants. They land hard on workers whose income is made up of irregular, non standard hours, including overtime. They land hard on E tū members.
It does not have to be this way. A change of Government could restore pay equity, bring back Fair Pay Agreements, and protect the leave that workers rely on. That is what is on the line in November: our wages, our conditions, and our rights. Our future, our terms.
The dangerous Employment Leave Bill
By Lester Udy, head delegate at NZ Steel
The Government’s proposed changes to our leave rights will hit hard-working New Zealanders, whatever the Government says. It calls the Employment Leave Bill a simplification. It is not. It is an attack on workers’ rights.
Take annual leave. Right now it is paid at the higher of your ordinary weekly pay or your average weekly earnings over the past 12 months. That is fair. You cannot pick up overtime while you are on leave, so being paid on your average recognises what you would normally take home. The Bill changes that, and companies end up double dipping. They get the overtime you work to keep production going, then pay you less when you finally take leave to rest.
Shift workers at NZ Steel earn an extra week’s leave, so they are hit even harder. Take a worker on $1,000 a week plus $250 in overtime. Under the current Act they are paid $1,250 a week on leave. Under the Bill, with five weeks’ leave, that drops to $1,240.08. The gap widens the more overtime you work and the more leave you are owed.
The Bill also stops your annual leave building up while you are on ACC. Being on ACC is not a holiday. Most workers already take home only 80% of their pay while they recover, and this penalises them again, when most people just want to get back to work. It could even push people back too soon and risk making their injuries worse.
Then there are public holidays. Right now, if you work one you earn a full alternative day off. The Bill swaps that for hours in lieu. Get called out to fix a breakdown for three hours on Christmas Day, and you earn just three hours back, not a day, even though it has disrupted your whole family Christmas.
The Bill would also make it easier to sell your leave. That cuts against the whole point of it. If leave is worth less when it is paid out, more people will sell it to make up the difference, and four weeks off could quietly become two.
This is not simplification. It is an attack on workers’ rights, and it looks good for business interests while it erodes conditions we fought hard for and earned. With an election in November, this must be a core issue for every worker.
Make sure you can vote
The Government has changed the rules. Under the Electoral Amendment Act 2025, you can no longer enrol or update your details during the advance voting period. That is new. If you have moved house, changed your name, or have never enrolled before, you need to sort it out early.
Key dates
- Sunday 25 October 2026, midnight — Enrolment deadline. After this, you cannot enrol or update your address.
- Monday 26 October 2026 — Advance voting opens. You must already be enrolled.
- Saturday 7 November 2026 — Election day.
It takes a few minutes to get sorted. Check or update your enrolment at www.vote.nz, or call 0800 36 76 56.
The Government may have made it harder to enrol, but it cannot stop us showing up. Get enrolled. Get your workmates enrolled. Get your whānau enrolled. Then vote.
Chris Hipkins, Leader of the Labour Party
“Unions have always been at the heart of the Labour movement and they will be critical to winning this election.
“Nothing is certain in politics and every potential vote matters. That’s why every conversation, every door knocked, every phone call made and every moment available to campaign needs to be made the most of.
“Working people built our movement and working people will decide the future of our country. Together, we can offer New Zealanders a real alternative to a Government that has left too many behind.
“The strength of our movement has always come from people standing together, organising together and campaigning together. That’s exactly what it will take to win in 2026.”