Tairāwhiti was the 19th payroll nationally to have remediation payments processed to current staff.
The figure paid out to current staff in Tairāwhiti this week equates to more than $11,000 on average for each person.
Gisborne Hospital-based New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate Christine Warrander said payment dates had been pushed back numerous times.
“That has led to a lot of anger and frustration without a lot of local communication coming through,” Warrander said.
“Current staff who have been paid are pleased to finally get what has been owed to them for over 10 years.”
But former staff members were still waiting to be paid, she said.
“Nationally, there are still other districts waiting for current employees to be paid.”
Health NZ executive regional director Cath Cronin said the organisation had made significant progress in the remediation project, with over two-thirds of current Health New Zealand employees now having received the money they were owed.
“I want to acknowledge the patience of our staff who have been waiting for their payment and also recognise the huge work from our payroll teams, both nationally and in the regions, who have worked tirelessly on this programme,” Cronin said.
She said the payment this week meant over 75% of Health NZ’s payrolls nationally had been rectified.
“This means those payrolls are now compliant with the act and staff are being paid correctly for their holidays in a nationally consistent way,” she said.
“Nationally, we have about 90,000 current employees, plus 130,000 former employees, covered by the Holidays Act remediation project.”
The payment to Tairāwhiti district staff took the total amount paid so far nationally to over $544.2 million across 72,296 current Health NZ employees.
