Holidays Act remediation

The Holidays Act 2003 is a piece of legislation that sets out the minimum entitlements to holidays and leave which employers are required to provide to their employees in New Zealand. It sets out how employees are entitled to annual leave, bereavement leave, alternative leave, public holidays, and sick leave. Click here to find out more about the Holidays Act on the Government’s legislation website.

The Holidays Act is a complex piece of legislation. In 2018, the Government announced a review of the Holidays Act to bring it up to date with modern workforce practices.

While the review is on-going, the Government has discovered that the legislation has been interpreted differently by a number of New Zealand businesses. The Government’s Labour Inspector is currently investigating larger organisations for compliance, as well as companies with high volumes of variable hour workers.

While T&G hasn’t been investigated, we wanted to proactively check our compliance with the Holidays Act. We engaged an independent consultant to assist us with this and have discovered that we weren’t compliant in some areas, while in other areas we exceeded the Holidays Act.

We want to get this right for our people (both current and former employees), while ensuring future compliance. That’s why we’re taking all of these steps.

The Holidays Act is complicated and many companies, including us, had not met all of the required obligations set out in it. We apologise for this. The issue relates to how a range of allowances and entitlements have been interpreted and implemented into DataPay. The specific areas that require remediation date back to 21 January 2011 and are primarily related to the payment of statutory holidays, and the rate of payments for annual, bereavement, alternative holidays, public holidays, and sick leave. We have prioritised our remediation programme, so we can work as quickly as possible to resolve this for current and former T&G employees.

If you wish to obtain a summary of your calculation, this can be arranged on request to .

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For current employees, a gross payment, less tax and superannuation, will be made as part of your regular pay but will be stated separately on your pay slip.

For former employees, we need to verify your identity, including your bank account details to make payment. By logging onto the remediation portal, you’ll be led through the easy to follow step-by-step process.

You’ll need the following information before starting the process on the remediation portal;

1. Your IRD number
2. Tax code declaration form IR330 (for advice on which tax code is relevant to you see the second page of this form)
3. Kiwisaver deduction form KS2 (if you are currently a Kiwisaver member)
4. Your bank account details
5. Reference number from the communication we, T&G, sent you
6. Marriage / birth / dissolution of marriage certificate if your name has changed during the period stated
7. Current driver licence or passport (a passport is required for anyone currently residing overseas)

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Please email with your details. If there are any discrepancies, we’ll contact you to work through these.

We want to ensure that anyone who has previously worked at T&G between 21/01/2011 and 30/06/2020 is reimbursed for any outstanding monies. Please ask them to email and we’ll work through the process with them.

You will need to provide documentation to verify your identity and to confirm you are authorised to act on behalf of the estate or person. Please email and we’ll work through the process with you.

If you are a current employee, we’ll be using the bank account we have on file for you, where you currently receive your wages.

If you are a former employee, you are asked to provide your current bank account details when you complete your verification form to ensure the any payment goes to the right place.

If you have a New Zealand bank account, any payment owing under this Act will need to be made into that account. If you do not have a New Zealand bank account, please indicate that in the portal and you will be given instructions on how to proceed.

We encourage you to contact Inland Revenue or your local tax authorities for advice about whether your remediation payment affects any agreement you have with them about your current earnings, benefits, child support or any other matters. The Inland Revenue website has useful information on the tax treatment of lump sum payments such as an arrears payment.

Please see attached Useful information on the tax treatment of lump sum payments

You can also contact the IRD directly on 0800 775 247 or from overseas on +64 4 978 0779.

We expect to process remediation payments to former employees within one month of successful verification. If you have not received payment by then please email .

If you are a KiwiSaver member, your remediation payment will be less your KiwiSaver ‘employee’ superannuation contribution.  You will also receive the company contribution.

If you are a current employee, this will happen automatically, but if you are a former employee you need to provide your KiwiSaver information as part of your uploaded KS2 form.

We will not be paying interest or compensation because the issue has led to employees receiving both underpayments and overpayments.  We have decided not to seek the repayment of overpayments and to instead resolve all underpayments.

A number of factors have been considered in deciding whether it was appropriate to pay an additional amount in the form of interest or compensation.  These factors included the following:

1. Given the amount of money owed to staff, it would not be fiscally responsible to pay interest or compensation.
2. T&G is not legally obliged to pay interest or compensation in this situation.
3. Where possible, assumptions have been made in favour of employees, or the most generous method of calculation has been used.

T&G will not be seeking repayments for anyone who has been overpaid.

If you are a former employee of T&G and are eligible for a remediation payment, T&G will contact you, this may be via text or email. If you have not been contacted, you are not eligible for a remediation payment.

Following a review by Ernst & Young (EY), and by working with NLC, a payroll consultancy company that specialises in Holidays Act remediations, we are confident our systems are now compliant, and this issue will not reoccur.