Statement attributable to Dr Pete Watson, Regional Executive Director – Te Waipounamu South Island:

Today Health NZ has processed approximately $96.5 million in Holidays Act remediation payments for 12,105 current employees in Canterbury and approximately $7m for 933 current employees in West Coast.

This marks another significant step in our progress in the remediation project, with more than 90% of our current Health New Zealand employees now having received full or partial remediation.

I want to thank our staff for their patience as they have been waiting for their payment and also recognise the huge work from our payroll teams, both nationally and in the regions, who have worked tirelessly on this programme.

The payment today means almost all of our payrolls now comply with the Holidays Act, with only three payrolls remaining. MidCentral, Lakes and Whanganui payrolls are due to be rectified in March-May 2026, as part of transitioning to a different system.

Nationally we have about 90,000 current employees plus 130,000 former employees covered by the Holidays Act remediation project, for the period from 1 May 2010 to the present day. 

The payment to Canterbury & West Coast staff takes the total amount paid so far nationally to over $647.7 million across 85,334 current employees.