Health workers are "sick of waiting" for authorities to settle holiday and leave entitlement payments owed, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation says.
Dozens of NZNO members from Canterbury demonstrated opposite Christchurch Hospital's emergency department on Monday in response to several years worth of delays around Holidays Act remediation subsidies.
The labour inspectorate of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) found there were problems with the then District Health Boards' payroll systems and its compliance with the act.
This meant some employees were receiving significantly lower leave compensation.
Photo: RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
NZNO Christchurch delegate Allister Dietschin told RNZ at the protest that health authorities had been dragging the chain for too long.
"Te Whatu Ora, or it was the DHB's back then, they've had eight years to essentially work out what people are owed and to pay it out," he said.
"So yeah we're sick of waiting.
"The government instructed Te Whatu Ora to have this wound up last year, but they've been kicking the can down the road and have been continuing to make promises about payments and then change that and then continue to delay and delay and delay."
Dierschin said more than 302,000 workers are owed about $2 billion.
Photo: RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
"This demonstrates a lack of respect from their employer," he said.
RNZ spoke to an experienced hospital aide Mike at the demonstration. He said he was unsure of whether he was going to be paid at all.
"You sort of wonder are they're going to pay it, I mean they probably will but what year and when, I don't know," he said.
Photo: RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
Mike described his employers' communication around the situation as "sadly lacking".
"I can't see any excuse as to why they haven't paid it out.
"Who knows, it's probably sitting in some back account earning interest."
Te Whatu Ora chief people officer Andrew Slater said it was working as fast as possible to make the payments.
In a statement, Slater said: "We too are disappointed that this work is taking longer than planned and our teams are going as fast as they can to do this work once and get it right."
The complexities of the Holidays Act, hours people work, employment arrangements and its payroll systems made it challenging.
"We are continuing to add more resources across our payroll teams for this priority programme of work."
There was no set date for when the payments would be made, other than November.
It was also unclear how much would be paid out - and to how many current and former staff members.
