Q: I believe there is currently no limit indicated on the holidays act as to how many unused annual holidays an employee can carry over. However, when looking at the govt.nz website (https://www.govt.nz/browse/work/annual-holidays/how-many-annual-holidays-you-get/) it states that “Your annual holidays do not expire if you do not take them within the year — but your employer might have limits on how much leave you can carry over.”
If our company has a leave policy that states we can only carry over up to 2 years of annual leave, are we going against the law?
A: A company can implement a policy stating that employees can only hold a specific number of weeks. The company then ensures the leave is taken by agreement with the employee or by using Section 19 (not less than 14 days’ notice). No use it or lose it provision would be compliant with the minimum entitlement.