The Holidays Act 2003 was established to provide minimum holiday entitlements for employees working in New Zealand to allow for a healthy work/life balance. It sets out how employers should pay leave to their employees.
As a result of the complexity of the Holidays Act, many New Zealand employers have found it difficult to apply the Act correctly when calculating different types of leave and discovered that they have been incorrectly calculating holiday pay and entitlements for some people.
While this does not affect all those that have been employed by ED, for some there have been underpayments or overpayments as a direct result of our interpretation of the Act. If you have been contacted by ED, you may be entitled to a remediation payment for any unintentional non-compliance.
If you were employed by ED between November 2012 and December 2022 and/or received communications from us, you may be owed a Holidays Act Remediation payment. To lodge an enquiry with the ED Holidays Act Project Team, please complete the two-step process outlined in the ED remediation web portal. You will be required to create an account with Snaphire or using an existing account.
Please note that if you are a former employee and a repayment is owed, we will be unable to discuss details until your identification is verified.
If you have any further queries, please email holidaysactremediation@everythingdigital.co.nz.
What is the Holidays Act?
The Holidays Act was established in 2003 to promote a healthy work/life balance and provide minimum holiday entitlements. It sets out how employers should pay leave to their employees.
It covers the calculation for different leave types, including Annual Leave, Bereavement Leave, Sick Leave, Public Holiday, and Alternative leave for salaried/wages employees.
What is the issue?
The Holidays Act is a complex piece of legislation with calculations and entitlements that vary for different leave types and can be difficult to apply for those employees with unpredictable/variable earnings.
The payroll system provider that is used at ED has identified instances of unintentional non-compliance, which in some cases has resulted in the calculation for the rate at which different types of leave are paid being incorrect between November 2012 and December 2022. This may have impacted statutory holiday payments and the rate of payment for annual, sick and bereavement leave. This has typically affected those who had variable work schedules or flexible work patterns.
This is a widespread issue across several payroll software systems affecting organisations across multiple industries and government departments who have been all working to correct this issue.
How do I know if I’ve been impacted?
If you were employed by ED between November 2012 and December 2022 and/or received communications from us, you may be owed a Holidays Act Remediation payment. To lodge an enquiry with the ED Holidays Act Project Team, please complete the steps outlined in the ED remediation web portal.
Steps as below:
1. Log in to the portal by creating an account with Snaphire or using an existing account
2. Submit your contact and identifying details
3. These details will be verified by our ED Payroll team
4. If any remediation repayment is due, a follow-up email with a portal link with next steps will be sent
5. Submit your bank details and identification details
6. These details will be validated by our ED Payroll team and repayment scheduled. We will email you confirmation of the payment.
What do I need to do to receive remediation payments I’m owed?
If you are a former employee and have been contacted by ED regarding Holidays Act remediation, you will need to provide the following:
– Identification (e.g., driver’s licence, passport)
– Updated contact information
– Tax code and IRD number
– Bank account details for payment
This is part of our verification process to ensure we have contacted the correct person and minimise fraudulent activity risk. By providing the requested personal information, you consent to Tonkin & Taylor Limited using that information solely for the purposes of the Holidays Act 2003 remediation process. If you choose not to provide your personal information, then we may not be able to provide you with any entitlement that you may be determined to have through the remediation process. In accordance with the Privacy Act 2020, you have the rights of access to, and correction of, any of your personal information at any time.
Please use the secure remediation portal to provide this information through an easy step-by-step process.
A team member will reply and confirm your completed form has been received, the remediation amount owed and the next steps.
If I’m entitled to remediation payments, how much will it be?
Each person’s calculated Holidays Act pay is based on their earnings history and leave pattern – which will differ from person to person. Each employee has been reviewed individually and each payment amount will be different.
Please note that all employees potentially affected by the Act will be contacted, regardless of the amount owed. Under the Holidays Act, we are obligated to pass on all monies owing, no matter how small the value is.
What about overpayments?
ED accepts responsibility for any overpayments and will not be seeking to recover any repayments from employees for any leave that was overpaid.
How was my remediation payment calculated?
To support the Holidays Act remediation process, ED engaged a specialist external provider (Mero) and their Holidays Act Remediation Engine (HARE) earlier this year. Mero has previous experience with Holiday Act remediation work at other affected NZ companies. All payroll source data from our payroll system was made available to Mero where a sample size, representative of the full population, was taken to assist in building a model specific to TTNZ and Geotechnics.
Mero first rebuilt the fundamental components related to the Holidays Act such as Annual Weekly Earnings (AWE), Ordinary Weekly Pay (OWP), Relevant Daily Pay (RDP) and so on, for all employees and for all relevant pay periods using the Gross & Ordinary Earnings and historical contracted hours, which was checked and validated by our payroll team.
These calculated components were then used to re-calculate annual leave and FBAPS (Family Violence, Bereavement, Alternative Day, Public Holidays & Sick) leave.
The results of each calculated component produced by Mero were reviewed extensively by our payroll team at each step in the process to understand outliers as well as to validate the model approach. In addition to our internal review, any modelling assumptions made, or approaches taken were informed by the legal advice received from Simpson Grierson as well as KPMG advice regarding the regulator guidance and wider market practices. The final model was independently reviewed and validated by KPMG.
How would I seek payment for a deceased former employee or an employee who I hold power of attorney for?
For all repayments, ED is required to complete our verification process to ensure we are making payment to the correct person. In this scenario, we are required to verify the executor of an employee’s estate or their power of attorney.
If you have received an email regarding a remediation payment or believe you are entitled to a remediation payment on behalf of an estate or a person for whom you hold power of attorney, please email holidaysactremediation@everythingdigital.co.nz to discuss this further.
How will my remediation payment affect my tax and any other benefits/deductions?
As any remediation repayments form part of an earnings payment, the following will be automatically deducted based on the information provided to us on our Holidays act form:
– PAYE (Tax)
– Student Loan
– KiwiSaver contributions if you are a current KiwiSaver member. ED will provide the associated legislated employer contributions as required.
If you have any further questions, please email holidaysactremediation@everythingdigital.co.nz.
