'That money could've been much better spent'
Health New Zealand is facing criticism after reportedly spending almost $130.1 million to fix its Holidays Act compliance errors.
Data that was reported by Checkpoint showed that the $130.1-million correction cost was spent on the following:
The massive costs to correct the compliance error have drawn flak from various groups, Radio New Zealand reported.
Tracy Chisholm, delegate from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, said the costs make a "mockery" of Health NZ's claim that they have a limited budget.
"It makes a mockery of the statement, 'There's no more money for health,'" Chisholm told RNZ.
"It makes a mockery of, 'We can't afford to give you any more than maybe an up to one per cent pay increase, but over the last how-many years, we've spent $130m on correcting errors that we've made,' so you can correct your own errors, but you can't actually pay the staff that are currently employed."
A spokesperson from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists also noted that the $130-million correction was a "direct result of underinvestment in infrastructure."
"That money could've been much better spent. It is unclear whether Te Whatu Ora is learning the lesson - the failure to invest today will come back to haunt them tomorrow," the spokesperson told RNZ.
Health NZ has refused to name the consultants and contractors who were involved in the cost correction, but noted that it involved payroll experts.
"This is an incredibly complicated project, where we're trying to return the money that's really deserved and owed to our staff," Mark Shepherd, Health NZ Northern Region Deputy Chief Executive, told Checkpoint.
Fiona McCarthy, Health NZ Interim Chief Human Resources Officer, also pointed out the challenges in their payroll system, such as different setups, local arrangements, and being outdated for modern payroll requirements.
"The complexities of the Holidays Act, the size of the workforce, the hours people work and the variety of employment arrangements, as well as the state of the payroll systems and processes, all make this a very challenging programme of work," McCarthy said in a statement.
Overall, Health NZ's Holidays Act compliance errors are estimated to hit $1.8 billion, according to the RNZ report.
This includes money owed to about 220,000 past and present employees, including doctors, nurses, and healthcare assistants.
The errors were discovered at 20 district health boards eight years ago, with the errors going back as early as May 2010.
The government has so far paid over $334.1 million across 45,667 current employees, with the agency seeking to finish the remediation payments to most current employees by July 2025.
Payments to former employees are expected to begin soon, according to reports, with Health NZ advising those who are potentially affected to register through their national portal.
"The portal provides a single point of contact and source of information for all former employees nationwide," Health NZ said on its website.
"The first payments to former employees are expected to start soon. We are legally obliged to pay any amounts owed, no matter how small."
