Workers across New Zealand may be checking their payslips after another company has revealed it underpaid workers by millions of dollars.
Bunnings Warehouse underpaid 12,335 current and former staff members, who will receive back payments for any miscalculated leave between April 1, 2004 and May 31, 2018.
In 2017 New Zealand police admitted to an underpayment of their own, with $39 million owed to workers.
Holiday pay is currently calculated based upon what would give employees the most money - the weekly pay at the start of the holiday or the average weekly earnings over the past 12 months.
However this can be confusing when dealing with flexible working arrangements and the cost of fixing past mistakes could hit New Zealand employers hard.
Employment lawyer Jennifer Mills told The AM Show there are likely more workers that have been underpaid and the final figure could be higher than the over $50 million underpaid by the police and Bunnings.
"Another two million New Zealanders are likely to be owed back pay for underpaid annual leave," Ms Mills said.
Host Duncan Garner pressed her on the exact figure and she admitted it's going to be a big bill.
"Based on the median payment which was $317 for Bunnings, I think that it could be fairly significant across the nation," she said.
"Maybe up to [$100 million]."
It's not just casual workers or part time workers caught up in the underpayment, but also the employees who earn large discretionary payments.
Ms Mills said workers who earn large discretionary payments should have a look at their employment agreements for phrases like: "the company and/or employer can vary and/or revoke the scheme at any time without compensation to you."
She said if that appears in the contract it's unlikely to be a discretionary payment.
Everyday PAYE workers should be looking at their pay before big holidays, if they're receiving a large spike of payment before going on leave the calculation might not be averaged over the 12 months.
It could be what they ordinarily earn, which may be a greater amount.
"That's where the crack could be for those employees," she said.
Newshub.
