Health NZ pays Wellington region more than $60 million after holiday pay botch-up
Photo:
RNZ / REECE BAKER
Health NZ on Thursday paid out more than $60 million to thousands of current staff in the Wellington region for incorrectly calculated holiday leave.
Deputy chief executive Robyn Shearer, the central region's top official, said the payments (to 7740 Capital and Coast workers) meant over two-thirds of current Health NZ staff had now received their Holidays Act remediation payments.
"I want to acknowledge the patience of our staff who have been waiting for their payment and also recognise the huge work from our payroll teams, both nationally and in the regions, who have worked tirelessly on this programme," she said.
"The payment today means all our Wellington region payrolls have been rectified, and over 75 percent of our payrolls nationally. This means those payrolls are now compliant with the Act and staff are being paid correctly for their holidays in a nationally consistent way."
It takes the total amount paid so far nationally to over $450m to just under 60,000 current employees, for mistakes dating back to 2010.
Earlier this week, RNZ revealed that Health NZ had spent
more than $130m fixing errors
with Holidays Act compliance, not including the money actually paid to staff.
In total, it owes about $1.8 billion to 220,000 past and present staff - including doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants.
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