A second tranche of payments to come later this year, Te Whatu Ora says
Te Whatu Ora has repaid approximately $39.1 million to thousands of its Waikato District employees who were affected by the agency's compliance issues with the Holidays Act 2003.
Cath Cronin, Health New Zealand Te Manawa Taki Regional Deputy Chief Executive, said the payment was made to 5,531 current district staff. This covers the period from May 1, 2010, to June 30, 2022.
A second payment will be made later this year covering July 1, 2022, up to the date of the second payment.
"The complexities of the payroll in Waikato mean that splitting the total amount over two payments is the best way for us to get money into people's pockets sooner," Cronin said in a statement.
"We have made significant progress in the remediation project with around two-thirds of our current Health New Zealand employees now having received the money they are owed."
Te Whatu Ora's remediation project
The payments are part of Te Whatu Ora's remediation project, which covers around 90,000 current and 130,000 former employees who were paid incorrectly as a result of compliance issues with the Holidays Act 2003.
"The payment to Waikato District staff takes the total amount paid so far nationally to over $530.2 million across 71,093 current employees," Cronin said.
This also brings total payrolls rectified to over 75%, according to the deputy chief executive.
"This means those payrolls are now compliant with the Act and staff are being paid correctly for their holidays in a nationally consistent way," she said.
Waikato District is the 18th payroll nationally to have Holidays remediation payments processed to current staff. Others include Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waitematā, Taranaki, Wairarapa, Nelson Marlborough, Hutt Valley, Capital and Coast, and four former shared services.
Partial payments were also made in the Bay of Plenty, Te Tai Tokerau, Hawke's Bay, and South Canterbury.
