Parliament rewrites the country\u2019s leave framework through the Employment Leave Bill<\/a>, introduced in March 2026, which would replace the Holidays Act 2003.<\/p>\n\u201cIt modernises how leave is earned, paid and taken, yet leaves the three-day bereavement entitlement sitting exactly where it has been for more than 40 years,\u201d Hemes said.<\/p>\n
As a businesswoman and former employer, Hemes also understands that some businesses may be resistant to her petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany businesses already recognise that three days simply isn\u2019t enough, and they support their staff for longer than the bare minimum because it\u2019s the right thing to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risks to staff morale and loyalty, culture, staff retention and risk management can be much higher if they don\u2019t support them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hemes believes the current overhaul of existing leave laws creates an opportunity for the Government to match those overseas, such as in Britain, where parents who lose a child aged under 18 receive 10 days\u2019 leave.<\/p>\n
Portugal offers 20 days, France 14, and many others are between seven and 10 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not doing this for me,\u201d Hemes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m asking for a law that tells grieving New Zealanders that what happened to them matters, that they\u2019re allowed to fall apart, and that their job will still be there when they can stand up again.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll New Zealanders deserve better. Ten days sends the message, \u2018you matter\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Titled \u201cIncrease the minimum bereavement leave entitlement to ten days\u201d, the petition is open for signatures and closes on August 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOur family lost a child; our children lost a sibling,\u201d Hemes said. \u201cAny family in that situation needs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9055,93560,115,4487,14032,4731,6179,8141,2082,71,62821,1743,12514,29484,6178,111,43,139,69,128,1436,1529,61,17454,1530,2963],"class_list":["post-458393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-9055","tag-bereavement","tag-calls","tag-christchurch","tag-daughter","tag-days","tag-died","tag-extend","tag-for","tag-from","tag-grieving","tag-launched","tag-leave","tag-minimum","tag-mother","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-petition","tag-rise","tag-three","tag-to","tag-whose","tag-years","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}