Christmas Closedown Periods

Christmas Closedown Periods

Now is a good time to start planning for the end of year festive season. If your practice normally closes each year, this is considered an annual closedown under the Holidays Act. Your employment agreements should include a clause outlining your obligations, including:​ 

• The required notice period for closedown
• How annual leave entitlements are applied 
• What happens if an employee has insufficient or no annual leave available

If your practice does not typically close during this period but you are considering doing so this year, you must consult with your staff. If agreement cannot be reached, you may direct employees to take entitled annual leave with at least 14 days’ notice, where they have sufficient leave available. 

If some employees do not have enough annual leave to cover the period, there are a range of options that may be available, including leave in advance or unpaid leave. We have information available to help you work through these arrangements with your team. Close down periods

GP Staff Ratio survey - Now live!

For our GP subscribers, if you haven't had a chance to complete the survey yet, the link is live until 5pm on Monday 21st September. The more responses we receive, the more meaningful and reliable the benchmarking data will be. We look forward to sharing the report with you next month! MAS 

2026 NZDA Conference

It was a pleasure to attend this year's NZDA Conference in Auckland, where MAS had a stand and hosted the employment fair. It was great to see so many of you interviewing graduates, and we hope you were all able to secure some good talent as a result.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by for a chat. We always value the opportunity to connect with Members and hear what's happening in your practices.

PMAANZ 2026 - There’s still time to register

We are especially proud that our own Bonnie Mitchell will be presenting the Practice Management of the Year Award on behalf of MAS. The conference is shaping up to be an excellent few days of learning, networking, and sharing ideas.

If you have not yet secured your ticket, there is still time. PMAANZ Conference 2026

Question of the month

This month's question:

Q: How long are you legally obliged to store employee payroll records?

Let us know what you think!

Last month's question:

Q: Can we make a role redundant even if the person in it is performing well?

A: Yes. Redundancy should relate to the role, not the person doing it. If there is a genuine business reason and the employer follows a fair process, the person’s performance in the role should not be a factor in determining whether the role is redundant, or not.

Got sticky questions you'd like to ask, please reach out.