By Niv Chitook of RNZ The Nurses Organisation says Health NZ Te Whatu Ora is asking staff to pay back money given in error, despite it owing present and former workers $2 billion in remediation payments. It is one of the cost-saving measures Health NZ is using to make $105m in cutbacks by July as directed by the Government, the NZNO said. A Health Canterbury job advert posted two weeks ago said it was looking for a “legislation and compliance overpayment officer” to join the region’s corporate payroll team.
It was a permanent, fulltime role that would “calculate overpayments in line with Health NZ policy” and “contact managers regarding sensitive overpayment situations and for recovery of funds”. The position was also responsible for “investigation and resolution of payments”. “It is common to have roles within payroll teams that are responsible for managing overpayments,” Health NZ chief people officer Andrew Slater said.
“An overpayment may occur if an employee’s hours of work change and the form to reflect this change is not processed by the employee, manager or payroll team within the relevant payroll period,” he said. Health NZ made no comment on whether the role was being used as part of cost-saving measures. Staff had already been approached to pay back funds across the motu, NZNO delegate Erica Donovan said.
The payments had not been rectified in the past four or five years when it happened, but had suddenly come up this year, she said. Don.
