A review by one of New Zealand's largest fast-food companies has revealed thousands of Kiwis could be eligible for a payout.
Restaurant Brands owns and operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Carl's Jr in New Zealand. It employs 3,484 people throughout the country.
A review of the company's payroll system revealed flaws in the way it paid out annual and alternative holiday pay.
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Anyone employed under a Restaurant Brand owned fast-food establishment from 2012 onwards could be eligible for a payout.
A former Pizza Hut employee says the prospect of a payout is "awesome" if Restaurant Brands has corrected the error itself.
"I guess I'm glad they're correcting it if it's something they've done themselves," Emma Duffy told
"But if they've been called out for it then it wouldn't surprise me."
"[Restaurant Brands] would like to apologise to anyone who hasn't received the right amount of annual holiday pay payments due to these issues," said the company's CEO Arif Khan on Monday.
"We have worked through this process in close consultation with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to identify and remediate non-compliance issues with the Holidays Act 2003," he continued.
The company's annual report for 2019 says it has set aside costs for a $3.5 million settlement provision.
It says it has contacted current employees to let them know if their leave payment has been affected.
Khan also says the company is in the process of running a national advertising campaign to target former employees affected by the mistake.
"We very much appreciate the patience of our staff while we have worked through the process of identifying exactly what the issues were and what we needed to do to fix them," Khan told Newshub in a statement.
Duffy says her experience of working for Pizza Hut wasn't a great one.
"It always felt like they were trying to get the most out of you while paying you as little as possible," she said.
Restaurant Brands declined to comment further, saying it would not speak to media until it has completed its program.
Newshub.
