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More than 4000 of Health New Zealand staff in Hawke's Bay are finally receiving $15.2m in Holidays Act remediation overnight - but nearly two-thirds of the country's healthworkers are still waiting.
Acting chief executive Dr Dale Bramley said the 4120 staff receiving payments included nurses, doctors, allied health staff, health care assistants, cleaners and administrators.
"We are very pleased for our staff that payments have been processed today and our Hawke's Bay staff are receiving the money they are owed," he said.
"Resolving Holidays Act Remediation payments for these staff has been extremely complex and time-consuming work requiring a large amount of manual processing and specialist skills."
Nationally Health NZ has about 90,000 current employees plus 130,000 former employees who are owed backpay due to incorrect calculations of their leave entitlements.
Hawke's Bay is the eighth payroll to process payments for current staff, following Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waitematā and four former shared services (HealthAlliance, Health Partnerships, Health Source and Northern Region Alliance).
The payment to Hawke's Bay staff takes the total amount paid so far nationally to over $254 million across 34,300 current employees.
"The Commissioner has made a decision that Holidays Act remediation payments need to all be made as quickly as is practical and we are working rapidly to make further payments as soon as possible, with several pending before Christmas.
"We aim to complete the Holidays Act remediation payments to all current employees by July 2025. The first payments to former employees will start in early 2025."
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