Race based leave?

Matua Kahurangi writes:

A clause quietly embedded in a collective agreement at Oranga Tamariki should alarm anyone who still believes the public service is meant to operate on neutral ground.

Revealed this week by Duncan Garner, the provision grants Māori staff discretionary paid cultural leave that is self-defined, open-ended, and explicitly protected from managerial scrutiny. Attendance at land court hearings, iwi or hapū meetings, cultural performances such as Te Matatini, and other obligations determined by the individual qualify. The list is deliberately non-exhaustive.

The crucial detail is simple. The entitlement applies to Māori staff only.

Non-Māori employees with community, religious, family, or cultural commitments must use annual leave, leave without pay, or whatever goodwill a manager is prepared to offer. One group receives an automatic, protected benefit. Everyone else manages as they always have.

This is clearly wrong. I would hope managers would be flexible with all leave applications for cultural leave, but it is wrong to have one set of cultural leave as an automatic entitlement, and the rest discretionary.

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