The Employment Leave Bill promotes insecure work and will leave thousands of workers worse off, the Labour Party and the Greens say.The Education and Workforce Committee recommended by majority that the controversial bill be passed.Labour said that while amendments had improved the bill in some respects, it was still arbitrary and was opposed by pretty much every group except a minority of employers."It is a bill that does not reflect the complexity of work found in New Zealand. We believe this is not a bill that will stand the test of time," Labour select committee members said."This bill ties annual leave and sick leave to standard hours only, rather than all hours worked. Labour has consistently opposed that approach because it means workers can do the same job for the same employer and receive different leave outcomes depending on how their hours are classified."Labour said the bill had been "precision engineered" to target those workers with the least power in the workforce."Instead of improving leave in a way that lifts all workers, it promotes insecure work. It creates less predictable access to leave, and reduces entitlements at each opportunity."The party said the bill also left in place the pro-rating of sick leave."Sick leave is a health and well-being entitlement, and it should not be diluted for workers whose hours are irregular, variable, or additional to standard hours."Labour said the bill risked entrenching unequal access to paid leave for part-time, casual, and otherwise vulnerable workers and made accessing leave harder.The Green Party said that women, young people, Māori, Pasifika and migrant workers were all more likely to be in "non-standard" employment arrangements and would therefore be disproportionately negatively affected by the bill."Those who have less to spare are the ones taking a pay cut under this bill," Greens select committee members said."The changes to sick leave, including halving sick leave for part-time workers, will disproportionately impact women, who tend to work part-time more than men, due to an unequal share of caring responsibilities and related factors. This will result in more women having to take unpaid leave if they or their dependants are unwell."The Select Committee report acknowledged that some submitters had raised concerns about the effect on employees of not accruing annual leave on all hours and considered that this might undermine employees' rest and recovery."We consider that some features of the bill may help address those concerns. Clause 31 of the bill stipulates that when an employee takes annual leave, the number of standard hours they can be required to work is reduced by the number of hours taken as leave," it said."Clause 7, which sets out the definition of additional hours, provides that additional hours are hours an employee cannot be required to work. By definition, the employee is under no obligation to work any extra hours over the number of standard hours taken as leave.""At the same time, there may be situations where an employee would like to work additional hours while taking annual leave on their standard hours. For example, they may take leave on some days and then choose to work additional hours on a different day in the week."The Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden said that for years, New Zealanders had been battling with the Holidays Act and incorrect payments for taking time away from work."A simpler replacement is now one stage closer to becoming law. The Employment Leave Bill passing will mean businesses and workers having more confidence that they'll pay and be paid correctly for annual and sick leave. This will be a win for both workers and businesses not agonising over confusing calculations," she said.Other features of the bill include access to bereavement and family violence leave from the first day of employment for all employees, with rules for when it can be taken.The Select Committee received submissions from about 660 interested groups and individuals.The bill now heads back to Parliament for its second reading.