What should we expect as typical annual leave? And how many public holidays are added to that?
Hubby's proposed contract has 20 days leave which seems tight to us as we've always had 30 days in the UK but what's average for NZ?

My OH's annual leave pay is set at 20 days + public holidays.
When he takes the leave days is dictated by the employer.

My company just announced that we will be closed for 3 weeks at Christmas - great I thought...... Until I found out that we have to give up 11 days annual leave for this!!!! We only get 20 days in the first place

hubby only gets 20 days also and yes a bit of a shock coming down from 30+ a year

20 days is the standard Government minimum now, it went up a couple of years back as it was only three weeks when we came.

Public holidays, one more day than England (9 I think) as we get the day after New Years Day (like Scotland). A couple of them aren't Mondayised though, so if they fall at the weekend, tough. Hence, last year we lost two days.

20 + public + 5 days sick seem to be the norm, with the 5 sick days takeable as "unprebookable holiday" in most places...

Ah yes, the old school holiday sickness. My office has all been very poorly lot this past couple of weeks. Bless em!

30???? bloody hell mine used to be 20 days UK and that was when nobody else was off.....what are we talking about.......public sector???

30+ gained by being in the same company for more than 10yrs and becoming management. Incentive for all the unpaid overtime

Yep 20 days for me here too.
Back in the UK I was on 35 days leave plus 8 PH's ( which I could take whenever as I generally had to work the actual public holidays) so pretty much 7 weeks/year.

just cause you worked for unenlightened employers there's no need to use that to berate people who worked for reasonable employers in the UK.
Mrs L used to get 35, but that was down to long service, experience, etc.

Just wait till you get sick here, or the kids (if there are any). Sick leave here can be a real real pain if you erm get sick in the first couple of years.

At least 5% of my colleagues in the UK (for an extremely private sector company) would have been sacked from a NZ job in those last 10 years due to illness if they were only allowed 5 days sick per year, even if they were accrued.

Oh. Forgot about that Capp. True. Out of the 20 days leave, at least 8 must be taken for the Christmas shut-down. Last Christmas the shut-down was for 3 weeks ,leaving us with unpaid leave as there was no paid leave left, the employer having used it during the winter previous to cover when work went a bit quiet. Half days here . A day there.

5 sick days a year. If one is sick, then that is the sick pay. Husband has had pneumonia. Still has for that matter. No sick pay and no holiday pay = no pay.

We have a similarly annoying situation also cos I changed my job I had absolutely no leave last Xmas other than the Statutory days and OH was forced to take his three weeks and stay home on his own. I can't forsee a time where we'll ever catch up and be able to take leave both together at the same time.

Another trick to watch is that lots of places don't allow you to take your leave in the first twelve months; been there done that and got the t-shirt. Rather than letting you use your accrued 1.6 days per month or whatever they will say you're not entitlement to take any of your leave until you have earned ALL of the first year's entitlement. This is well within their rights and how it's meant to be per the Employment Act and most employment contracts. However some may be lenient and allow you to use some 'anticipated' leave.

Nope, I've been working in the harsh end of the private sector and have worked a lot of extra hours and bank holidays. Not complaining too much as I earned a good wage for it and saw a lot of the world but I definitely couldn't work for government, it would drive me nuts! Can't stand red tape and excessive procedure. I don't know anyone who gets only 20 days in the UK any more.

Ok, so the holiday is standard. OH's job was originally going to be a daily rate consultancy and is mainly independent working so I would hope that if the office closes at Xmas, he could work the days he wanted at home, but I will definitely get him to check that - thanks for the heads-up.

He gets 10 days sick, so that sounds better than the average.

Does anyone get settling-in time? Expat jobs we've had before have usually had 5 days extra paid time at the beginning of the contract to allow for packing, finding a house rental, enrolling kids in schools etc. In reality you never take all that as you're anxious to meet the team etc but it's good to have.

My other concern is that he'll be travelling overseas and the contract seems to exclude (it's a bit vague and I don't like vague in contracts!) getting time off in lieu if you're flying at weekends. I figure if you spend Sunday at airports and on planes so that you're in a foreign country to work at 9 sharp on Monday, then you claim the Sunday back. Is that considered unreasonable in NZ?

Is there a standard pensions contribution?

The contract does say holiday can be taken in advance by agreement.

Are there any other potential traps I should look out for or try to negotiate?

My company give 2 years sick leave, although I think max of 12 months in a row or something like that.

In the US they've moved to an unlimited scheme for both holiday and sick leave i.e. leave is not monitored at all, you just get your job done. The results of this? Employees actually take less leave than they were entitled to before.

However, I think that many New Zealanders would just abuse these schemes and are not mature enough to deal with them.