Looking for some assistance from employment nerds to make sure I'm not making a fool of myself.

I was employed on a fixed term contract with an employer for approx. 18 months. During this period of employment there was a notified closedown period over the Christmas/New Years period. On receiving my final pay it was significantly different from what I had calculated using guidance from the Holidays Act and MBIE website. I informed the employer of this fact and they did nothing about it for two months. Now they have come back to me with their calculations and a refusal to accept that they could be wrong. There is a difference of 2.5x between myself and the employer.

As I see it here are the facts:

1. No entitlement to annual holidays exist until 12 months of continuous employment: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0129/45.0/DLM236874.html

2. At the commencement of a closedown period an employee who has no entitlement to annual holidays must be paid their annual holiday as of that date. Annual holidays are calculated as (gross pay for the employment period - the value of any leave taken in advance) x 8%: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0129/45.0/DLM237103.html

3. The commencement of the closedown period resets the 12 month period required before an annual holidays entitlement exists:http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0129/45.0/DLM237105.html

4. At the termination of employment of less than 12 months the employee is entitled to holiday pay calculated as (gross pay for the employment period - the value of any leave taken in advance) x 8%: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0129/45.0/DLM236886.html

The timeframe between the commencement of the closedown period and termination of employment is less than 12 months due to the 12 months of continuous employment required for an annual holiday entitlement reseting at the commencement of the closedown period.

I believe the holiday pay component of my final pay should be:

1. Payment of holiday pay at the commencement of the closedown period in 2017. This period is less than 12 months. Clearly this should have been paid at the time.

2. Payment of holiday pay for the period beginning at the commencement of the closedown period and finishing on the last day of employment. This period is also less than 12 months.

Where I was employed is Unionised and has a collective employment agreement (CEA). I was employed under this agreement and still belong to the Union. I have contacted the Union for direction but the local representative is on leave. The CEA states a specific leave year period. As part of this CEA there is an entitlement to additional leave (not annual). This leave year period is necessary to manage this additional leave entitlement. 

The employer provided holiday pay calculations clearly show that holiday pay has been calculated over two periods; the first being from commencement of actual employment until the end of the CEA specified leave year, the second being from the beginning of the next CEA specified leave year until the termination of employment. Both periods are less than 12 months. In both periods the employer has calculated holiday pay as (holiday entitlement accrued period one - leave taken period one) this is carried forward to period two then the same calculation performed (holiday entitlement accrued both periods - leave taken both periods). These final calculations have been performed using (hours of leave accrued x hourly rate).

In my view the employer has in no way complied with the Holidays Act. They have some blind belief that the CEA conditions trump legislation. The employer has also used the above method to calculate holiday pay for the additional leave entitlement, and ignored specific direction given in the CEA. In real dollar terms we are talking about a very significant figure.

I acknowledge this is a complicated subject but I feel the employer is stark raving mad if they think they've done these calculations correctly. This was my first period of employment where the Holidays Act applied but I have done significant research and while I might not be 100% correct I'm sure the employer is still in the wrong.

The employer frequently uses this type of employment situation and I am concerned that other people might have been impacted by the same wonky holiday pay calculations but are unaware.