About the Holidays Act programme (Ministry payroll)#

You may be aware that, along with many other government agencies and New Zealand businesses, we were not compliant with the Holidays Act 2003. This was due to former system configuration issues and how the allocation of entitlements was calculated at that time.   

In 2020, we began work to review and identify pay errors for all Ministry-employed and paid staff, including former staff. We worked closely with a specialist payroll consultant and went back as far as March 2010. We agreed these dates with our union partners as we started this work.

Remediation process#

The remediation process has comprised highly detailed data corrections and recalculations to check that Ministry employees have received at least their minimum entitlements under the Holidays Act 2003.

The process examined annual, bereavement, family violence, alternative or sick leave and public holidays. Where the minimum entitlements were not met, some current and former employees are eligible to receive a remediation payment.

You are more likely to receive a payment if you have:

• worked roster or shift arrangements
• received allowances
• changed work patterns. 

In September 2022, we finished calculating historic holiday pay errors dating back to March 2010 for Ministry employees and completed an independent quality assurance (IQA) process to ensure our calculations and data corrections are correct.  

Payments for former Ministry employees#

We completed payments to current Ministry employees in October 2022 and started payments to former employees. Around 7,000 former employees are entitled to a payment, with about a third being under $100.  

Since November 2022, we have been contacting all former employees entitled to a payment via the following methods.

• If we have their mobile phone number, they will receive a text. (To avoid the text looking like SPAM, we will not include a link. We will write the website address to go as 'education.govt.nz' which people can search themselves.)
• If we do not have a mobile phone number and have an email address, we will send them an email.
• If we have neither a mobile phone number nor an email address, we will send them a letter in the post.

In their communication, the former employees will receive a unique code to use in the claimant management portal where they must complete some verification questions.

Getting a Holidays Act remediation payment#

If we have sent you a text, email or letter with a unique reference number, you are entitled to a remediation payment.

We are required by law to calculate all employees’ annual leave entitlements, in accordance with the Holidays Act 2003. Whatever the amount is that the person is owed, which can be very low, we must offer to pay it to them.

You may decide that the amount you are owed is not worth continuing with the process of uploading your documents and details. See the process below.

Check the amount of your entitlement first#

Use the unique reference number that you received in your text, email or posted letter from us, to access the portal. You will be asked a set of questions to prove your identity. You will then be able to see the remediation payment amount. If you do not wish to claim your payment, there is a box to tick to confirm you are choosing not to proceed with the claim.

Before you start making a claim #

If you have checked the amount of your entitlement and would like to proceed with claiming it, you’ll need the following information:

• Your IRD number.
• Tax code declaration form — IR330 [PDF, 116 KB].
• KiwiSaver deduction form — KS2 [PDF, 81 KB] if you are currently a KiwiSaver member.
• Your bank account details (this must be a New Zealand bank account).
• The unique reference number from the communication we sent you.
• A marriage, birth or dissolution of marriage certificate if your name has changed during the period stated.
• A current driver licence or passport. A passport is required for anyone currently residing overseas. 

Payments#

• Payments are made on the 20th of each month.
• If we verify your details 3 business days or more before the 20th of the month, you will receive your payment on the 20th of that month.
• If we verify your details less than 3 business days before the 20th of the month, you will receive your payment on or before the 20th of the next month.
• If the 20th of the month is a weekend or public holiday, you will be paid the next business day.
• We will email you confirmation of the payment.

If you are a former employee and think we may have old contact details for you, email us. 

Email: [email protected]