As a bit of background, the Holidays Act 2003 covers pay and entitlements for employees in New Zealand about all types of leave and public holidays. For those employees who work shift work, variable days and hours, or with flexible work patterns including RMOs, calculating holiday pay has been more complex.
This has resulted in widespread non-compliance. Essentially, employers (not just limited to DHBs/Te Whatu Ora) have unintentionally been underpaying or overpaying staff what they’re entitled to.
The areas requiring remediation date back to 1 May 2010. The issues mostly relate to the payment of statutory holidays, annual, sick and bereavement leave.
In late 2016, DHB chief executives agreed to establish a national process to respond to concerns raised by the Council of Trade Unions (CTU), around levels of compliance of then DHB payroll systems with the Holidays Act 2003.
Since then, there has been a lot of work done to develop a national process, and work is still ongoing to develop and agree a national interpretation of the Act for all Districts to adhere to. For RMOs there is the added complexity around Annual leave. RMOs are unique in that prior to Te Whatu Ora collective agreements allowed for the transfer of Annual leave between DHBs, however while complying with the MECA at the time, the view of the labour inspectorate is that this was actually uncompliant resulting in additional complexities throughout this project.
The process
Each District has been working through three main phases, and each are at different stages in their projects.
Step 1 - Review: Audit processed were undertaken which identified the key areas of Holidays Act non-
compliance. Many DHBs employed independent auditors like Ernst & Young to complete these.
Step 2 -Rectification: As a result of the reviews, this phase looks at what changes need to be made to ensure all system/s, policies and processes are compliant, and that DHBs pay their employees correctly going forward.
Step 3 - Remediation: This stage is about calculating and paying anything that is owed to current and former employees arising from any identified areas of non-compliance, back as far as 1st May 2010. It should be noted that some employees may have been underpaid – and some may not. Not everyone will be owed money.
All stages of this project have been done in conjunction with the health unions, and STONZ is also part of the National Holiday Acts Working Group which was established to ensure there is agreement between all parties on the new interpretation of the Act before any remediation is undertaken.
What do you need to do?
Remediation payments are starting to be made. Current employees, from your current District will be remediated first, then “former employees” i.e., when you were employed by another District. You will most likely receive more than payment from more than one District depending on where you and worked.
To ensure you receive any/all Holidays Act remediation payments you are owed, it is important to be registered online. Follow this link for details on how to register on Te Whatu Ora’s national portal. There are also full FAQ and contact information for the Holiday Act teams at each District on the employer portal/intranet.