Sick leave increases & managing mental health in the workplace
6 July 2021
Increase to Sick leave entitlements
From 24 July the sick leave entitlement increases to 10 days per year. The extra 5 days is applied after the completion of 6 months continuous employment, or on the next sick leave entitlement anniversary (12 months after the previous entitlement). This means that anyone employed after 24 January 2021 will be entitled to 10 days sick leave.
The amount of sick leave that can be accumulated remains at 20 days unless more generous entitlement is allowed in the employment agreement.
Our employment agreement templates have been updated to reflect the changes.
Mental Health in the workplace
In the last year we have noticed a marked increase in queries about how to manage employees who present with or disclose mental health issues.
While we can’t assist with the clinical side we do have information on HealthyPractice about dealing with the employment side at this link(once logged on) https://www.healthypractice.co.nz/members/human-resources/leave/sick-leave/managing-mental-health-issues-workplace/
In summary, your staff are your greatest asset, and their wellbeing has a major impact on the overall success of your practice.
One of the most significant influences on the wellbeing of your staff is their mental health. Fortunately, mental health issues don’t have the stigma they once did, and recent initiatives have done a lot to get people thinking about how they can improve their own mental health and help others who may be struggling.
So, what can you do in your own workplace to help a staff member who needs support?
- Discuss the situation with the staff member, but before doing so be clear in your mind what you are concerned about.
- Work out what the practice can do to help? Remember your obligations under Health and Safety, if there is something going on the workplace that is exacerbating the problem, have you investigated any concerns? What support can the practice offer or what is it prepared to do?
- Ongoing support is often required and make sure that the employee has medical certification that they are fit to return to work, and you have a supportive return to work plan.
Our content has links to resources to help you and organisations that provide mental health support.
Managing underperformance when there is a mental health diagnosis, brings its own challenges and the bar to provide support and adjust processes to take into account the employees condition is high.
An Employment Court case where the employer was found not to have met its Health and Safety obligations is summarised at this link (once again log on first) https://www.healthypractice.co.nz/members/human-resources/discipline/case-study/
Other recent articles
11 June 2025
What do you need to do when you receive a resignation.
An employee resigns by giving you notice. This will usually be in writing but may sometimes be done verbally. If the employee resigns verbally, you should request that they put their resignation in writing. If written notice is not provided, you should write to them and record their verbal resignation.
8 April 2025
A week in the life of HealthyPractice
So what does an average week look like for us? We review about 50-60 Individual Employment Agreements, contracts for service and letters of offer. Things we commonly adjust include: Agreement type e.g. fixed term, or casual that should be permanent part time Hours of work Trial period dates – remember the notice period can be shorter for this and we recommend 3 days to one week. Letter of offer details don’t match the IEA
13 May 2025
90-day trial periods
Over the last month we have had quite a few queries about 90-day trial periods. These questions have included their validity when there have been paid training days. Paid training days before formalising employment complicates things. Once you pay someone for undertaking work they are seen as an employee, and at this stage you haven’t provided the applicant with any terms and conditions of work in their employment agreement. Having a signed agreement before starting work is a legislative requirement.
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