Interim Holidays Act remediation payments of $32.6 million have been processed today for 4308 current Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora Bay of Plenty employees.

"With less than a week to go before Christmas I know this payment will be gratefully received by those staff who are owed money," said Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Deputy Chief Executive Te Manawa Taki, Cath Cronin.

The interim payment made today covers our employee’s current role and any former periods of employment at the District.

"The payment does not include money owed for ‘Otherwise Working Days (OWD)’ or anniversary-related termination pay. A payment for this will be made in 2025," said Cronin.

"The complexities of the payroll in Bay of Plenty mean that the interim payment is the best way for us to get money into people’s pockets sooner.

"Staff receiving payments work across the health system and include nurses, doctors, allied health staff, health care assistants, cleaners and administrators.

"As shown by the need to make an interim payment today, resolving Holidays Act Remediation payments for these staff has been extremely complex and time-consuming work requiring a large amount of manual processing and specialist skills.

"Nationally we have about 90,000 current employees plus 130,000 former employees covered by the Holidays Act remediation project, for the period from 1 May 2010 to the present day," said Cronin.

Cronin said, so far nationally ten payrolls have had their full payments processed to current staff with Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waitematā, Hawke’s Bay, South Canterbury, Taranaki and four former shared services (HealthAlliance, Health Partnerships, Health Source and Northern Region Alliance) completed. 

The payment to Bay of Plenty staff takes the total amount paid so far nationally to over $308.2 million across 41,929 current employees.

"We aim to complete the Holidays Act remediation payments to all current employees by July 2025. The first payments to former employees will start in early 2025."