It has been 8 years since underpayments arising from the Holiday Pay Act were detected, affecting thousands of current and former DHB employees. And despite promise after promise, the latest KPMG reports on the remediation process show that few former DHBs have been paid out, and of those, almost no former employees have been paid out.
At the same time, the ‘efforts’ to get current and former staff have been paltry - only some 58% of former employees have registered for payments that could potentially be tens of thousands of dollars. We believe that Health New Zealand are actively stalling because to pay nurses what they are owed would put a serious strain on the financial health of the organisation.
Open Letter to Dr Shane Reti, Minister for Health
We believe that kiwi nurses have waited too long for Holiday Pay Act underpayment reimbursement. That’s why we’ve sent our demands to Health Minister Shane Reti. Click here to read the letter.
We are committed to running a test case to raise awareness of this issue and get you back what you are owed.
NZNO Nowhere to Be Seen
NZNO are part of the consultation process with Te Whatu Ora / Health New Zealand. However, while supposedly pushing from behind the scenes regarding the Holiday Pay Act remuneration process, we are unaware of them litigating a single case to speed this process up. Since establishing last year, NPANZ has heard the stories of hundreds of nurses affected who are astounded at how long this process has taken.
Health New Zealand have fronted up that they made mistakes with calculating leave owed under the Holiday Pay Act. They have confessed to the mistakes that were made, just as other government employers have. There is no question that they have underpaid stuff unlawfully - litigation would not be a challenging or tiresome process. And yet, the main nurses union in NZ has done nothing. That’s why we’re stepping up to make a change.
Our Plan to Speed Up Pay Remediation
Unlike the NZNO, who have taken members' money for years without lifting a finger on this matter, we will take action - even for those who aren’t members. Once we’ve won, we will release a detailed kit for anyone who wishes to take matters into their own hands. New Zealand Health can be rest assured that after our win, they will be flooded by individual claims if they do not pull their finger out and start paying nurses as they promised.
We have briefed experienced industrial relations and class action lawyers. We intend to recruit a test case from one of our petition’s signatories, so please put in some detail in the form and we may be in touch with you to discuss the possibility of being our test case.
Sign our petition on our campaign page. Once we have received 3,000 signatures, we will commence litigation for back pay owed + interest.