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June 12, 2024 3 mins

Health NZ is standing by its processes, despite upset over staff having to pay back money received in error.

The Nurses' Union is raising concerns over the pay back request, as Health NZ still owes workers $2 billion in under payments.

HNZ Chief People Officer Andrew Slater says at any one time, only about one million in errors is being chased across a $10 billion pay roll.

"This is just us making sure that people are paid accurately - and we are working with taxpayer money wisely."

Slater says they're incredibly frustrated at what it owes workers, and they're working round the clock to fix this.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather do for Seel Huddle standing by to talk to
us shortly. Health New Zealand is asking staff to pay
back money that they received an error. The Nurses Union
reckons this is an attempt to save costs and it's
smarting because Health New Zealand itself still owes workers two
billion dollars in under payments. Chief people Officer at Health
New Zealand, Andrew Slater's with us, Hey, Andrew evening head,

(00:21):
how much money are you chasing?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I look, at any one time, we've got sort of
around about a million dollars in sort of errors that
we've identified at any one time that we are chasing
that we're working with people to either get paid paid
back or correct. That's across a ten billion dollar payroll.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
The payments that you are trying to chase at the moment,
these are things that happened, according to the Nurses Union,
potentially as much as four or five years ago. Is
that right?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I understand that there are a couple of payments that
go back that far, but for the most part, our
payment specialists within our payroll teams, we've got over two
hundred people that work in payroll around the country and
we have dedicated roles that you know, every week check
you know, someone might leave and they have paperwork hadn't

(01:10):
come through and so therefore they've been overpaid a week
and we followed up. So it's normally about a million
dollars in that category.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
And are people paying it back?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, looks for the most part our people are we
put in place payment plans. There's rules in the collectives
that allow us to do that. There's the Wages Protection
Act that we do, and this is just us making
sure that people are paid accurately and we're working with
tax payer money wisely, they have.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
A fair point to be a bit annoyed about it, right,
because you owe them so much money and are so
late in paying it all.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Right, Look at Health New Zealand, we are incredibly frustrated
about that Holidays Act and pay that we owe our people.
You know on inception none of our payroll systems we're
compliant with the Holidays app. We've a team of people
working tirelessly every day to get that money out the door.
We've done thirty four thousand people you know. Today I've

(02:08):
been looking at getting out another one hundred and twenty
million and getting back through now we've calculated it correctly.
Over thirteen years old. This ship is a sue that's
been building.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
How is it that you guys are struggling so badly
to just pay people properly? I mean it's twenty twenty four,
Like most of us can do this properly. What's up?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, Look, we have got over over twenty nine payroll
systems that came in from those former district health boards.
You know, we're still using paper timesheets, dot matrix printers
in some of our hospitals. Lay role has been invested in. Yeah,
I know, I know, this is this is this is
twenty twenty four. We've got we've got a plan. We're

(02:50):
going to sort it out. We're going to we're going
to put it right. And that's what I'm focused on
making sure we do at the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
How long before you guys upgrade to compuse.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, So we've got our Auckland, our three Auckland district
have now got compliant payrolls the Holidays Act, and so
we're currently working on all of the other systems to
get the compliant and in those in those places where
we've got paper processes, dot matrix printers, We're going to
be working on that really rapidly. It took a long
time for us to get where we are. It's going

(03:23):
to take us a long time to climb out of that.
So over the next you know, we're chipping away at
sorting it out, putting it right. It'll be at least
eighteen months plus before we've before we've got it all
fully sorted out the Holiday's Act payments. So we're really
focused on getting that money out the door this year.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah good, I'm pleased to hear that, Andrew. Thank you
very much. Andrew Slater, chief people Officer at Health New Zealand.
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