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Photo: JOAN CROS / NurPhoto via AFP McDonald's employees are running into trouble when attempting to receive money owed to them, Unite Union says. The fast food giant has started paying out holiday pay owed to tens of thousands of staff almost five years since it agreed to. In November 2019, Unite Union announced it had reached a deal with McDonald's to go back 10 years to reimburse employees over a payroll botch-up. McDonald's was one of hundreds of companies caught up by payroll systems incorrectly calculating holiday pay. On its website this week, the company said it had been given approval by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to begin remediation. It said current and former staff who worked during the remediation period between 2009 and 2019 should go to an online p...

Photo: RNZ "Heads should roll" at the Reserve Bank if it decides to move the official cash rate this month, when economic data has broadly moved in line with its forecasts, one economist says. Calls have been heating up for a cut this month as the economy looks increasingly weak. Data on Wednesday showed the unemployment rate hit 4.6 percent in the June quarter, just under economist forecasts of 4.7 percent but in line with the Reserve Bank's most recent prediction. Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said when the Reserve Bank forecast that level of unemployment for June, it was alongside interest rate forecasts that did not include a drop in the official cash rate (OCR) until August 2025. "Unemployment has done roughly what they thought, inflation is slightly better than they though...

Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has confirmed some jobs could be "significantly impacted" by a change proposal kicking off on Thursday. But it has stopped short of confirming whether more roles could be disestablished. So far it has already announced nearly 350 jobs are gone, or are proposed to go. On Thursday it will begin consulting on proposed changes to Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery's Market Integrity branch, which "delivers world leading regulation to protect the fairness and integrity of markets in Aotearoa New Zealand", branch general manager Sanjai Raj said. "We are proposing some changes to how the Market Integrity branch is structured and to the way we deliver our services for the public of Aotearoa New Zealand," he said. "Those w...

The lease of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's downtown Auckland land comes up for review next year. Photo: 123RF Some inner-city Auckland apartment owners may have their "heads in the sand" about the possible implications of a ground rent review next year, one real estate firm is warning. The lease of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's downtown Auckland land at the former Railway Lands, Te Tōangaroa, comes up for review in August next year. The leasehold terms included a ground-rent free period until 2011, and then reviews at seven-year intervals. It is the site of many apartment buildings, including the Scene buildings. Scott Dunn, of City Sales, said his firm had listed 11 or 12 properties on the leasehold land in recent weeks. "Some sales will go for under $100,000, some over. We don't have anything lined u...