Up to 60,000 to get pay remedy

Thousands of current and former Mcdonald’s workers are in line for a payout of incorrectly calculated holiday pay.

The issue relates to the use of faulty payroll systems.

A nationwide technical glitch caught out a number of employers, including Bunnings, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise and police.

Simon Kenny, spokesman for Mcdonald’s, said it had signed an enforceable undertaking with the

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, regarding annual leave remediation.

‘‘We have spent tens of thousands of hours working on what is a hugely complex project, in order to ensure the approach to making calculations is correct.

‘‘With the agreement in place we can now start the process of doing individual calculations.

‘‘As other companies working on annual leave remediation have done, we will advertise when we have worked through the calculations and will have a website current and former employees can log into.’’

Unite Union national director Mike Treen said it was possible every person who worked for Mcdonald’s after November 1, 2009, could be owed money.

‘‘Unite Union believes that could be as many as 60,000 staff and millions of dollars will be involved,’’ Treen said.

Mcdonald’s had done more than it had to by backdating the pay to 2009, Treen said.

‘‘Going back 10 years is in part in recognition of the fact that Unite alerted Mcdonald’s and other companies it deals with to the problem in February 2015,’’ he said.

‘‘While we congratulate Mcdonald’s for going back as far as they have, and other companies like Bunnings who have gone back even further, we are hugely disappointed that MBIE has allowed companies like Restaurant Brands, who were alerted to the problem at the same time as Mcdonald’s, to limit their liabilities to only six years.’’

Treen said he was still waiting for a government audit of all major employers.

‘‘We believe 90 per cent of private-sector workers will get nothing unless the Government takes some action,’’ he said.

It was believed up to 2 million New Zealanders were owed money because of the payroll issues.

Payment breaches averaged between $70 to $1800 per worker.

Treen said 22 payroll providers supplied 95 per cent of employers with their payroll software and nearly every one of them got it wrong.

‘‘No employer who has not voluntarily undertaken an external audit can claim to be compliant with the law. Failing to act now constitutes wage theft.’’

MBIE has been approached for comment.