Annual holidays (sometimes called annual leave) means paid time off work or a special holiday payment on top of your wage.
Everyone who is an employee, no matter how old they are or what kind of job they do, becomes entitled to four weeks annual holidays after one year of continuous employment. This includes part time, seasonal and casual employees.
If you've been working less than a year, then you aren’t entitled to annual holidays, but your employer may allow you to take some of your annual holidays in advance.
If your job ends before you become entitled to annual holidays (and the employer has not been paying your annual holidays as pay-as-you-go) the employer must pay out any outstanding annual holidays. By law, your outstanding holidays should amount to 8% of your total before-tax earnings from the time you started your job to the end.
If you’re employed on a fixed term (such as doing a seasonal job), or if you work casual hours where it’s not practical for the employer to provide you with four weeks annual holidays, the employer may instead of annual holidays provide you with 8% of your gross (before tax is taken out) weekly earnings which is paid as part of your regular wages.
http://www.dol.govt.nz/er/holidaysandleave/annualleave/cashing-up.asp
If you and your employer can’t agree when you should take your annual holidays, your employer can tell you when to take annual holidays. If this is the case, your employer must give you 14 days’ notice.
Your employer can also tell you to take annual holidays if they regularly close down for a certain period every year. In this case your employer must also give you 14 days’ notice of the close down.
Call the Department of Labour’s Contact Centre on 0800 20 90 20 to find out what your rights are under the law. Or you can use the problem solving process to try to fix the problem yourself.