Southern councils have revealed their annual leave allowances, with the results showing some staff are getting more than what is standard.

Under current legislation, the minimum entitlement for annual leave in New Zealand is four weeks per year.

Last week, it was noted during an Invercargill City Council meeting that the chief executive had approved an increase in annual leave allowances for staff.

In response to questions, chief executive Michael Day confirmed an increase had been approved for the standard four weeks to increase to five weeks.

But there was a caveat — staff needed to have been continuously employed for four years.

Day said the cost to council was an increased “annual leave liability” which would be a maximum of $75,000 for the 2023/24 financial year.

He also noted the five-week increase had previously been available to staff once they reached their six-year anniversary.

The change was made last year as part of a wellbeing initiative.

At Southland District Council, annual leave entitlements were negotiated as part of individual employment agreements.

A council spokesperson said a number of staff had negotiated leave which exceeded the minimum allowance.

Environment Southland was still utilising a 30-year-old system which saw staff accrue an extra day of leave for the first five years they were employed.

Once they reached a maximum allowance of five weeks total leave, the additional days stopped accumulating.

Gore District Council had not reviewed its entitlements recently, but staff could access their leave before the 12-month entitlement period was up, a spokesperson said.

At that council, staff generally received four weeks of leave except in cases where they had negotiated a different arrangement.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air