Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Bunnings to pay back staff $11m to comply with Holidays Act

NZ Herald
17 Jun, 2018 10:07 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
The payout affects over 12,000 staff. Photo/file.

The payout affects over 12,000 staff. Photo/file.

Bunnings has announced it will back pay staff $11 million as part of its efforts to comply with the Holidays Act.

The payment affects 12,235 staff members and comes as a number of other major organisations also make moves to correct the underpayment of staff over years.

All leave payments from April 1 2004 to May 31 2018 have been recalculated to identify team members requiring payment and all money owed will be inflated to current value in line with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Consumer Price Index.

The median payment to staff is $317.

Team members were informed today, and the company has already commenced back payments to current staff.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Bunnings NZ general manager Toby Lawrance says Bunnings will ensure team members are paid correctly moving forward until a permanent solution can be implemented.

"Like many other private and government organisations, we have found interpreting and applying the Holiday Act to be a challenge," he said in a statement.

"As a large employer in New Zealand we understand the importance of the trust that exists between our team and the business, particularly in ensuring they are paid correctly."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Holidays Act saga stretches back a number of years, with a 2016 government report showing more than 24,000 people in the public and private sector had been underpaid between $70 and $1800 each since 2012.

The issues with the act centre around the fact that there are two ways to calculate holiday pay - either on the basis of ordinary weekly pay or an employee's average weekly earnings over the past 12 months.

Employers must pay whatever gives the employee the most money.

But employers who calculate holiday pay based on an employee's contracted hours can get caught out if that person does variable hours or earns a commission or other variable pay.

Due to the continued fallout from this issue, Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway announced in May that the Government would be setting up a task force to review the legislation and how it is applied in the workplace.

Lees-Galloway said the 15-year-old law which sets minimum entitlements for holiday, sick and bereavement pay needed reviewing to ensure it was fit for the modern workforce. It catered to a nine-to-five working day, which was no longer as common.

"It can be very challenging to work out exactly what people's entitlements are when they work what would traditionally be called irregular hours, but which these days are a normal part of working life."

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Rule change: 12-month prescriptions will be ‘less stressful’ for patients

31 Jan 10:00 PM
Hawkes Bay Today

Man critically injured outside Napier nightclub

31 Jan 09:44 PM
Hawkes Bay Today

Napier gets big thumbs-up after offshore race

31 Jan 04:00 PM

Sponsored

Discover Australia with AAT Kings’ easy-going guided holidays 

15 Jan 12:33 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Rule change: 12-month prescriptions will be ‘less stressful’ for patients
Hawkes Bay Today

Rule change: 12-month prescriptions will be ‘less stressful’ for patients

A Hawke's Bay medical centre is welcoming the rule change for 12-month prescriptions.

31 Jan 10:00 PM
Man critically injured outside Napier nightclub
Hawkes Bay Today

Man critically injured outside Napier nightclub

31 Jan 09:44 PM
Napier gets big thumbs-up after offshore race
Hawkes Bay Today

Napier gets big thumbs-up after offshore race

31 Jan 04:00 PM


Discover Australia with AAT Kings’ easy-going guided holidays 
Sponsored

Discover Australia with AAT Kings’ easy-going guided holidays 

15 Jan 12:33 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2026 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP