Did bosses pocket staff quake cash?
Taxpayers have forked out more than $14 million to keep workers in quake-affected jobs, but some employers seem to be keeping the cash.
Work and Income figures show 1301 businesses received money under the earthquake support subsidy, started after the magnitude7.8 Kaikoura quake on November 14 to help employers keep staff while things return to normal.
But one cafe worker says she is yet to see a cent for the eight weeks she was out of work, and she was forced to draw money down on a student loan to live and pay rent.
The university student, who did not want to be named as she was now back working at the cafe, said she called the helpline in early December to ask about the subsidy, but was referred to her employer. It was early January when she finally returned to work, but was yet to see a cent of the money.
She had asked her boss about the payment ‘‘multiple times’’ but was fobbed off with the same story – that there had been problems with paperwork or the people from Work and Income. She had been unable to find out if her boss got the money and was not passing it on, or if he had simply not applied for it.
The Ministry of Social Development (MSD), which oversees Work and Income, confirmed there had been a ‘‘small number of inquiries’’ from employees who said the money had not been not passed on to them.
‘‘The subsidy is paid to employers to support them to be able to continue to pay their employees, but the relationship is still between the employer and their employee,’’ a statement from MSD said. ‘‘. . . No further investigation has been carried out’’.
Any decisions about MSD taking further action would happen on a case-by-case basis according to individual circumstances.
There had been some delays in processing applications, particularly when they required further work, but processing for complete applications was now down to ‘‘one to two days’’.
‘‘Initially there were some processing challenges, but our focus has been on making the subsidy available to people as quickly and efficiently as possible . . .’’
The subsidy is paid at $500 per week for full-time employees and $300 per week for part-timers.
Work and Income advises that employers needed to continue employing and paying employees they were claiming the subsidy for at the rate they were receiving before the quake, where possible.
Employment lawyer Peter Cullen said: ‘‘[Employees] should claim that, if necessary, in the Employment Relations Authority.’’