Questions and answers

If your question isn’t answered below, the best way to get in touch is via our query form(external link).

Holidays Act non-compliance

What is the Holidays Act?

The Holidays Act 2003 (the Holidays Act) promotes work-life balance by setting out minimum holiday and leave entitlements for employees.

When did the Ministry first become aware of Holidays Act compliance issues?

After we received information about Holidays Act non-compliance from the Public Service Commission and the Labour Inspectorate in March 2016, we engaged an independent organisation to carry out the School Sector Payroll Holidays Act Compliance Review.

This review, completed in December 2016, identified high-level areas of non-compliance related to the way different types of leave have been applied. 

Non-compliance with the Holidays Act is a widespread across the public and private sectors, with many organisations facing similar issues.

What is Holidays Act remediation?

Holidays Act remediation is the correction of historical payments for leave taken during the remediation period if they haven’t been calculated and paid as required by the Holidays Act.

What is the remediation period?

The remediation period starts on 1 March 2010 and will continue until the schools payroll is compliant with legislation.

With the agreement of the Labour Inspectorate, we are going back six years from the date the Ministry became aware of the Holidays Act issues. As the Ministry became aware of Holidays Act issues in March 2016, we are remediating from 1 March 2010.

The first payment for some current school employees covers some leave types across a portion of the remediation period – from 4 September 2013 to 27 January 2022. 

What is the Ministry doing to address non-compliance with the Holidays Act?

The Ministry is undertaking Holidays Act remediation on behalf of 2,500 schools, and for around 200,000 current and former employees across 400,000 roles. We will make remediation payments to affected current and former school employees to correct errors made from 1 March 2010 onwards.

Addressing Holidays Act non-compliance for the schools payroll is complex and is taking time to complete. In order to pay some of the money owed sooner, we have made a first remediation payment to most current school staff, based on an initial estimate for some leave types across a portion of the remediation period. 

What progress has the Ministry made so far towards full remediation?

Following an initial review of the schools payroll system in 2016, we have completed significant work to understand the extent of non-compliance with the Holidays Act for current and former school employees.

We’ve also progressed complex work with education sector representatives on remediation principles and payroll data rules. 

Work to determine solutions, build and test a remediation calculator, and prepare the large historic payroll dataset for remediation calculations is ongoing.

What are the next steps?

We are continuing work to determine solutions, build and test a remediation calculator, and prepare the large historic payroll dataset for remediation calculations.

Once the data is ready and calculations have been run, we’ll test the output to validate the results. We’ll also seek independent assurance of the calculations before payments are made.

In the meantime, we have adapted an existing estimation tool to make a first payment to most current school employees. This means some of the money owed can be paid sooner.

Does the schools payroll comply with the Holidays Act now?

Compliance with the Holidays Act will require a range of solutions, including system, process and practice changes.

Our first focus is ensuring historic errors are addressed.

Once historic errors are addressed, the Ministry will continue to pay remediation until the schools payroll is compliant with legislation.

Is Holidays Act non-compliance related to Novopay?

Holidays Act non-compliance is a widespread across the public and private sectors, with many organisations facing similar issues.

Our remediation period spans two payroll systems and there are data and system challenges across both. 

Which employees are covered by the Ministry’s Holidays Act remediation programme? 

The Ministry is undertaking Holidays Act remediation on behalf of 2,500 schools. Our Holidays Act remediation programme covers current and former school employees paid through the schools payroll.

The Secretary for Education is charged with providing a schools payroll under the Education and Training Act 2020. Education Payroll Limited delivers this service on the Ministry’s behalf. All state and state-integrated school boards must use the payroll service to pay teachers. With the Ministry’s approval, they may opt out of using the schools payroll to pay non-teaching staff.

If you are unsure whether you are paid through the schools payroll, you can check with your school payroll administrator or principal.

The early childhood education and tertiary sectors are out of scope for this programme of work.

Timing

Why has the Ministry made a first remediation payment?

Addressing Holidays Act non-compliance for the schools payroll is complex and is taking time to complete. We have made a first payment to most current employees so that some of the money owed can be paid sooner.

When was the first remediation payment made?

The first payment was made on 27 June 2023. If you received a payment in this round, it was paid into your bank account along with your normal pay. We also emailed you on the payment date using the email address that Education Payroll Limited uses to distribute payslips.

When will Holidays Act remediation be complete?

The timing of payments is still to be determined – we’ll share more information when we’re able to.

Why is Holidays Act remediation taking a long time to complete?

We face a unique set of challenges in calculating Holidays Act arrears for the school sector.

While many other organisations across New Zealand have faced similar challenges with the Holidays Act, the size and complexity of the schools payroll means our work is taking longer to complete.   

The schools payroll is the largest in New Zealand, with an average of 96,000 school staff paid each fortnight. There are also many complexities resulting from a large number of collective and individual employment agreements, and associated payroll processes and practices that are embedded in the education sector.  

When will former employees receive remediation?

This first remediation payment did not cover former school employees. Remediation payments for former employees will be made at a later date.

Scope of payment

Who received the first remediation payment?

Around 75 per cent of current school employees received a payment in this round.

The payment is based on an initial estimate covering some leave types for part of the remediation period.

If you are a current school employee and you didn't receive a payment, there could be several reasons for this. For example:

  • you may not be due a Holidays Act payment, or
  • you might be owed a payment for a leave type yet to be addressed, or for an error outside of the period covered by this payment.

You are more likely to be owed Holidays Act remediation if you have:

  • worked roster or shift arrangements
  • been a casual employee
  • received allowances, or worked additional hours or overtime
  • changed work patterns, for example, from full-time to part-time.

We won’t be able to confirm whether you are due Holidays Act remediation until we’ve completed further calculations to fully address historic Holidays Act errors.

This first remediation payment did not cover former school employees.

Who is considered a current employee for this remediation payment?

We have defined current employees as anyone who was paid in any of the six pay periods, or on long-term unpaid leave in all of the six pay periods, before 18 April 2023.

Which leave types were covered by the first payment?

The payment focused on:

  • sick leave, public holidays, bereavement leave and family violence leave for current school employees (except short-term relief teachers)
  • public holidays on days that would be otherwise working days for short-term relief teachers.

As the first payment has been based on an initial estimate for part of the remediation period, further calculations for the leave types covered may differ. We’ll complete further calculations for these and other leave types to fully address historic Holidays Act errors once the data is prepared and the Holidays Act remediation calculator is ready.

Why did you choose those leave types for the first payment?

We aimed to pay as much as we could to current school employees, while minimising the risk of paying more than is owed before further calculations are completed.

By estimating sick leave, public holidays, bereavement leave and family violence leave for part of the remediation period, we could cover a broad group of current school employees.

By including public holidays on days that would be otherwise working days for short term relief teachers, we were able to further increase the scope of the payment without significant additional data conforming work.

What is an otherwise working day?

Employees get a paid day off on public holidays if it’s an otherwise working day for them. An otherwise working day is a day that an employee would have been working had the day not been a public holiday.

What date range did the first payment cover and why?

It covered the period from 4 September 2013 to 27 January 2022.

The date range was limited due to the amount of additional data cleansing required for other time periods.

About the payment

How do I find out if I received a payment?

If you received a payment in this round, it was paid into your bank account along with your normal pay on 27 June 2023. You should be able to see the gross amount (before tax and deductions) for each job covered on your payslip. It will be identified in the details section of your payslip as Holiday Act Pay and/or included in the summary section.

We also emailed you on the payment date using the email address that Education Payroll Limited uses to distribute payslips.

Why haven’t I received a payment?

If you are a current employee and you didn't receive a payment, there could be several reasons for this. For example:

  • you may not be due a Holidays Act payment, or
  • you might be owed a payment for a leave type yet to be addressed, or for an error outside of the period covered by this payment.

You are more likely to be owed Holidays Act remediation if you have:

  • worked roster or shift arrangements
  • been a casual employee
  • received allowances, or worked additional hours or overtime
  • changed work patterns, for example, from full-time to part-time.

We won’t be able to confirm whether or not you are due Holidays Act remediation until we’ve completed further calculations to fully address historic Holidays Act errors.

Where can I find my payslip?

Your payslip is emailed to the address provided to Education Payroll Limited. In a small number of cases, payslips are posted to the physical address provided.

What’s the password for my payslip?

The password for your payslip is your seven-digit Ministry of Education (MoE) number. If you don’t know your MoE number, check with your school administrator or payroll authorised user.

What happens if you have paid me more than I’m owed?

When we run further remediation calculations, you’ll receive the difference between the total amount owed and any amount already paid.

In the unlikely event that we have paid you more than the total amount owed, we will not recover overpayments. 

How did you calculate the payment?

While the Holidays Act remediation calculator is under development, we have adapted an existing estimation tool to complete calculations based on reduced set of data conforming and remediation rules.

Using the estimation tool, we have:

  • recalculated instances of sick leave, public holidays, bereavement leave and family violence leave for current school employees (except short-term relief teachers), by comparing what was paid when the leave was taken to their Average Daily Pay rate and establishing the difference.
  • calculated the amount due to short-term relief teachers for public holidays that have been identified as an otherwise working day for them.

After we complete additional work on the data, we’ll use the Holidays Act remediation calculator to calculate individual amounts owing across all leave types for the full remediation period (from 1 March 2010).

 At this stage, we’ll also recalculate the leave types and time period covered by this payment. As the first payment is based on an estimate, further calculations for leave types and time period covered by this payment may differ.

How do I keep myself safe from phishing scams?

Phishing is when someone uses an email, text or phone call to try and get access to sensitive information (like bank account numbers and passwords).

If you received a payment in this round, it was paid directly into your bank account along with your normal pay. 

We also emailed you on the payment date using the email address that Education Payroll Limited uses to distribute payslips.

For schools payroll remediation payments, we will never ask you for your bank account login or password. Any information you receive from us will direct you to the Ministry of Education’s website.

More information about phishing scams is available on the Netsafe website(external link).

Tax, benefits and interest

How is my payment taxed?

Your remediation payment is treated as a lump sum payment.(external link) Income tax and ACC contributions have been deducted using the tax code held for you by Education Payroll Limited.

Have KiwiSaver and student loan contributions been deducted from my payment? 

Yes, if you are a member of a KiwiSaver scheme, employee and employer contributions have been calculated as part of the payment process. Student loan repayments have also been deducted as required by law.

Will the payment affect any benefits I receive or payments I make, for example, child support payments?

You can contact Inland Revenue(external link) or the Ministry of Social Development(external link) for advice about whether your payment affects any benefit, tax credits or other support payments you receive or make.

For more details, see:

Will I receive interest on my remediation payment?

No interest is payable on remediation payments.

Contact the team

My question isn’t answered above, how do I get in touch with the team?

For questions about Holidays Act remediation or the wider schools payroll remediation programme, the best way to get in touch is via our query form(external link).

 You can also contact the team by:

For other payroll related questions, you should talk to your school’s payroll authorised user in the first instance.

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