Te Whatu Ora almost on track for 100 per cent settlement by end 2025
Te Whatu Ora interim chief human resources officer Fiona McCarthy said she recognised remediation payments were taking longer than everyone hoped and apologised for that but “we are making progress”.
So far, $308.2 million in holiday remediation had been paid to 41,929 current staff at 10 regional Te Whatu Ora payrolls — South Canterbury, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty (interim partial payment due to be completed this year ), as well as Hawke’s Bay and the Auckland districts. With 13 more to go, Te Whatu Ora says it estimates it will complete most payments to current employees by July 2025 and all by the end of 2025.
The first payments to former employees will start in early 2025 and be completed by the end of 2025 — with the exception of Auckland City which is still to be confirmed.
The 2003 Holidays Act brought with it a complicated array of new leave entitlements which many payroll systems – across government departments, police, hospitals, banks and businesses – failed to correctly calculate. Work to reform the Act continues today.
In the mid-2000s, it soon became clear many of our members working shifts at Hawke’s Bay district health board (DHB) had not been paid correctly for their leave — payments that needed to reflect the complexities of shift work, penal rates, on-call, overtime and so forth.
What is it about health that makes it so hard to get what we are owed?
As an NZNO delegate, I took up the issue — and the battle for corrected holiday backpay began in Hawke’s Bay.
Fellow delegates and I started raising it at some of the joint NZNO-DHB management forums in place at the time and there was a lot of talk — but nothing happening. Every month, I add ‘Holidays Act compliance’ to the agenda, and by 2019 it had become a standing item.
Our members, as those at many other DHBs, were becoming increasingly aware they were being paid incorrectly
In 2016, NZNO and other unions like E Tū, the Public Service Association (PSA) and APEX (for allied, scientific and technical staff), doctors unions as well as the Council of Trade Unions (CTU), set up a national working group on holiday remediation with DHBs. It was agreed that payments would go back to May 1, 2010 — six years from the date non-compliance was identified, as required by law.
In Hawke’s Bay, we also set up a local union-DHB steering group which began meeting with DHB managers and accountants in May 2020.
We all debated long and hard how to interpret the Holidays Act when it came to annual leave, long-service leave and shift leave, as well as hours worked versus contracted hours. We covered everyone except cleaners, who were mostly contractors and had already received their Holidays Act compliance payments in 2019.
But there were many delays and frustrations. It took months to simply define what “a week” meant. DHB support agency, TAS (technical advisory services) pulled out of the national group. Some DHBs were upgrading their payroll systems and others weren’t. It was a bit of a mess.
Members, understandably, were becoming increasingly frustrated as the months and years passed and other workers — at NZ Police, banks, Heinz-Wattie’s — got their holiday backpay. Was the Government committed to paying us health workers or not?
Members ‘losing faith’
Locally, members were also losing faith with the national working party and feelings were running high.
They started asking about interest payments on money owed and emailing then-Minister of Health Andrew Little. He promised it would be paid by February, 2022 — this turned out to be another broken promise.
What is it about health that makes it so hard to get what we are owed?
We did not feel it was acceptable to expect an overworked essential workforce to wait another five years to be paid what we were rightfully owed.
Finally, in March 2022, our DHB (now Te Matau Māui Hawke’s Bay) brought in consultants, payroll experts and new accountants to prepare for mass payments to eligible staff.
I was tasked with tracking down former staff who were eligible — it finally felt like we were making progress.
But colleagues with terminal illnesses were also approaching me, fearing they would be gone before seeing their entitlements. Others were retiring or leaving New Zealand or hospitals for better-paid jobs elsewhere.
This all spurred me to push harder to get this resolved.
Hours contracted versus hours worked
One of the key problems was a lack of communication with grassroots members by NZNO. It felt like things were being decided for us by union staff and the employer and I felt members needed to be leading the discussion.
There were rumours that NZNO was preparing to accept a deal where staff would be paid according to their contracted hours — not hours actually worked.
By now, some of our members owed holiday back pay were in their 80s!
At the time, there were global nursing shortages and staff were working a lot of extra shifts to try and keep patients safe. I knew nobody would want to keep doing that if it wasn’t contributing to their annual leave balances.
So I went into bat big time with then-chief financial officer Andrew Boyd at Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay. By the end of those discussions I felt like I almost had an accounting degree! But we agreed staff would continue to receive annual leave for hours actually worked, if greater than contracted hours, and I was grateful for Boyd for listening and signing it off.
In January 2023, at a combative delegates meeting with Little in Hawke’s Bay, I complained to Andrew Little about how long it was taking to give us our backpay. He replied by saying it was a big piece of work.
In July and September that year, 34,000 current workers at Te Whatu Ora’s Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waitematā regions, and at four former partner health services (Health Alliance, Health Partnerships, Health Source and Northern Region Alliance) got $246.5 million in holiday backpay.
More delays
We in Hawke’s Bay were lined up to be next. We were due to be paid in August 2023, but the date kept being pushed back as Te Whatu Ora struggled to find payroll staff.
November . . . then March 2024 rolled around with still no payments.
Our Hawke’s Bay members were voicing their displeasure and I demanded an explanation for the seven-month delay. Te Whatu Ora said it needed more run-throughs to make sure payroll system was working correctly.
Many Hawke’s Bay workers were coping with the after-effects of Cyclone Gabriel and had still not seen any money from insurers, Government or local authorities after their homes had been damaged or destroyed. A lot of them had been counting on the Holidays Act back pay coming through in 2023, as promised.
I knew more delays would not go down well with our members.
Late 2023, with the support of NZNO’s chief executive Paul Goulter and industrial advisor David Wait, we delegates met with Te Whatu Ora national managers Elizabeth Jeffs and Jim Green. They said holiday remediation had been a large and complex piece of work but promised to pay Hawke’s Bay workers between March and November 2024 — nine months later than promised.
Another blow came when we were told that staff who had changed their jobs within the organisation would only be paid up until the change — even though they had not broken their service. NZNO advised that Te Whatu Ora Auckland’s Te Toka Tumai had done it this way, so we must also.
I argued against this but to no avail — it was very frustrating. Auckland considered this to be “too big a piece of work”. We in Hawke’s Bay felt we were being forced to do things Auckland’s way because they were bigger — and we were not happy about it.
You left us in the dark to cope with your employees’ frustration, anger, bitterness, disbelief and disgust.
Later NZNO confirmed that that under the collective agreement, when members moved roles it did not mean they had terminated their original employment — it was just that the payroll system was technically incapable of recognising this. But by then it was a done deal.
By now, some of our members owed holiday backpay were in their 80s!
Hope . . . and despair
Finally, we were assured payments would be coming on August 15, 2024. Everyone was pleased, ready and waiting.
Anger, sadness, disbelief, bitterness and disgust soon followed. Under the leadership of newly-appointed commissioner Lester Levy, Te Whatu Ora decided to withhold the $15 million it owed to Hawke’s Bay members due to its well-publicised financial pressures from a $1.4 billion overspend.
Tears and fears about being unable to pay bills and mortgages came gushing out. What a weekend that was — the calls, texts and emails never stopped.
This was the tenth time promised payments had been rolled over.
I sat down and wrote a email to Levy and Te Whatu Ora chief executive Margie Apa. Here are some excerpts — I pulled no punches.
Once more, you as our employer have let your Hawkes Bay employees down five days out from paying us which you agreed to pay on 15 August 2024. This has been owed to us for well over 14 years in the form of Holidays Act remediation payment.
You, with no thought of what will happen to your employees, have made this decision that has huge impact on this region.
Your failure and lack of courtesy to even give the local unions delegates working party notification of your decision to use our money at our cost has caused huge issues.
You left us in the dark to cope with your employees’ frustration, anger, bitterness, disbelief and disgust in our unpaid time not knowing what was happening.
This is showing us all, your total disrespect of us as your employees, your lack of empathy to the situation we now find ourselves and once more showing that if it suits you, you will stoop to stealing and using our money for what you want instead of it going to the rightful recipients, the hospital employees.
I sent a similarly angry email to NZNO management for their lack of action. We in Hawke’s Bay were fed up and wanted to make some noise and go public!
On Monday I waited to be summoned — and possibly sacked! — by management over the letter. Instead, a week later, our local Te Whatu Ora working party manager rang me to apologise for the failures in communication and payment, saying they had been told not to discuss it.
As they continued to refuse to pay us, I began to investigate taking legal action — and warned Te Whatu Ora I was doing so.
‘Bittersweet’ victory
Whether or not that made difference, I can’t say. But on November 1, I was advised payments were imminent. Time will tell, I thought. Everything was crossed, hoping.
On November 14, the payments came through.
They ranged from 20 cents (for someone who’s just started in the hospital kitchen!) to $20,000 for someone who had been there for the 14 years since the battle formally began . But most got something between $6000 and $12,000 after tax.
Coping with people’s dashed hopes time after time – and high, often angry, emotions – has not been easy.
To say staff were pleased is an understatement.
For me it is bittersweet victory that took far too long. I am happy people have got the money they’ve been owed – but frustrated for those who still have to wait simply because they changed roles within Te Whatu Ora. Colleagues have also retired or died waiting.
Coping with people’s dashed hopes time after time – and high, often angry, emotions – has not been easy.
It has also been frustrating that we were expected to do it Auckland’s way, as a smaller region.
The biggest frustration though is that it took 14 years to sort out an accounting error. That we were given 13 cancelled dates before achieving payment — that’s 13 times dealing with disappointed, angry staff.
But I am grateful, too. It has been an interesting ride with many learning experiences. I want to thank my working group colleagues who supported me and my NZNO organiser Lyn Williams who listened to me over the years. Paul Goulter and David Wait who also listened and communicated. I know I was a pain in their necks as I refused to back down. And I’m also grateful to the Hawke’s Bay Hospital payroll manager Caroline Kelly who thought outside the square so we could get the payments through in a timely fashion.
In the end, it took the trust of staff in me to get us there, and that is appreciated.
Still fighting for those who have died
Now I am tracking those families of members who have died waiting — so far I have located about 28. I don’t want to wake up and find that my people – Hawke’s Bay people – who have changed jobs or retired have not been paid what they’re owed.
I’d quite like to retire but I’m going to hang in there and hold Te Whatu Ora to their promise to pay everybody by the end of 2025.
Already, Te Whatu Ora has broken its promise that it would pay everyone by the end of 2025, and has pushed it out to 2026. We will see.
I’ll be doing my best to make damn sure they keep their word.
Updated remediation payment timeline
| District/Project | Estimated Remediation Date | Estimated Formers start date |
|---|---|---|
| Wairarapa | March 2025 | Q3 2025 |
| Northland | April 2025 | Q2 2025 |
| Nelson / Marlborough | April 2025 | Q3 2025 |
| Hutt Valley | April 2025 | Q3 2025 |
| Capital and Coast | May 2025 | Q4 2025 |
| Southern | May 2025 | Q3 2025 |
| Tairāwhiti | June 2025 | Q2 2025 |
| Waikato | March 2025 interim / Full payment to be confirmed | Q4 2025 |
| Canterbury / West Coast | June 2025 | Q3 2025 |
| Whanganui | August 2025 | Q3 2025 |
| Mid Central | October 2025 tbc | Q4 2025 |
| Lakes | October 2025 | Q4 2025 |
| Bay of Plenty | Interim completed December 2024, Full payment June 2025 | Q2 2025 |
| Taranaki | Completed December 2024 | Q1 2025 |
| South Canterbury | Completed December 2024 | Q2 2025 |
| Hawke’s Bay | Completed November 2024 | Q2 2025 |
| Auckland Metro | Completed July /September 2023 | TBC |
| RMO Transfers | TBC | n/a |
| Transferred employees | TBC | n/a |