From 15 August 2023, there is no longer a legal requirement to isolate when someone tests positive with COVID-19. This page is currently under review. Read COVID-19 and the workplace for more information.
Returning to work due to COVID-19
Temporary changes were made to New Zealand’s parental leave law to allow some workers to go back to work temporarily during the COVID-19 outbreak without losing their remaining entitlement to parental leave, and its associated payments and protections. These people could return to work for up to 12 weeks, and then go back on parental leave, if for reasons related to the COVID-19 outbreak:
- their skills, experience or qualification meant that nobody else could fill their role, or
- there was unusually high demand for workers in their role.
This provision stopped being available on 20 January 2023.
People who temporarily returned to work due to COVID-19
This temporary return to work will have affected how some of your entitlements worked, but you should not have missed out on any of the entitlements you would have otherwise had.
You were not considered to be 'on parental leave' in any way while you were temporarily back at work due to COVID-19.
This means that while you were back at work:
- you temporarily stopped receiving parental leave payments
- you received Best Start payments
- your 'keeping in touch' hours balance was not reduced
- the weeks you worked were not deducted from the maximum period you could receive parental leave payments
- the weeks you worked were not deducted from the maximum period you could be on parental leave, including extended leave
- you were temporarily unable to transfer your parental leave entitlement to your spouse or partner.
When you stopped work again (and notified Inland Revenue), your parental leave resumed as if it was 'paused' on the day you temporarily returned to work. This means:
- you started to receive parental leave payments again, if you were eligible for payments and had entitlement remaining
- you stopped receiving Best Start payments if you started receiving parental leave payments with Best Start payments resuming at the end of paid parental leave
- you could use your 'keeping in touch' hours
- you could transfer your parental leave entitlement to your spouse or partner.
If you have any concerns or questions about how your entitlements were affected by your temporary return to work, you can send a message to Inland Revenue through your myIR account to enquire about your situation or call 0800 227 773.
If you are pregnant again or have another child coming into your care, the rules about the gap between parental leave periods are slightly different.
Usually, people are not eligible for leave and payments if they have another baby, or another child comes into their care, less than six months after their leave and payments ended for their previous child.
For people who returned to work temporarily for reasons related to the COVID-19 outbreak, there is a slightly different rule. If you become pregnant again, or another child comes into your care, you will be eligible for parental leave and payments if you meet the other eligibility criteria and it is at least six months since your last period of parental leave and payments would have ended if you had not temporarily returned to work during your parental leave.
If you have questions about this, you can send a message to Inland Revenue through your myIR account or call 0800 227 773.
Find out more about parental leave