Datacom Payroll Press - Mar 2022 Issue

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Welcome to the first Datacom Payroll Press of 2022. In this edition, we show you how we are helping customers stay compliant with COVID-19 vaccination requirements, we bring you everything you need to know about New Zealand's latest addition to the public holiday calendar, and we provide a reminder about end of tax year changes.

We hope you enjoy this newsletter. If you would like further information about any topic, please don't hesitate to reach out to your usual contact within Datacom Payroll.

As businesses are reopening their doors, the return to the workplace brings new challenges for employers. To help keep employees safe, and to comply with government regulations, organisations need a secure and reliable way to record the COVID-19 vaccination status of their staff.

Datacom has responded to this by developing a secure payroll solution that is now available as an add-on to our Direct Access and DataHR customers.

Due to the sensitivity of the information being captured and stored, significant development has been undertaken to ensure that privacy and security are at the core of the standard solution. One of the critical protections offered by the solution is that companies can enable appropriate access, ensuring only authorised personnel can view and report on COVID-19 vaccination records.

If you would like to find out more about how to enable the COVID-19 solution for your organisation, please reach out to your usual contact within Datacom Payroll.

Commencing this year, New Zealand will celebrate Matariki as a public holiday. Matariki is the Te Reo Māori name for the Pleiades — a cluster of stars that rises in mid-winter, marking the start of the Māori New Year.

Matariki is a time for:

• Remembrance: honouring those we have lost since the last rising of Matariki.

• Celebrating the present: gathering together to give thanks for what we have.

• Looking to the future: looking forward to the promise of a new year.

The calendar date for the public holiday will change each year to align with the Māori lunar calendar, but will always be on a Friday. For 2022 this will be celebrated on Friday 24 June.

This new public holiday date has already been added to DataPay for 2022.

With the new tax year just around the corner, our compliance team has been busy working to update our system in accordance with the new requirements. For the 2022/2023 financial year you can expect to see:

• New ACC earners' levy rate

• Updates to the student loan repayment threshold

• Minimum wage rate increase

• Starting-out workers and training minimum wage rate increase

Please remember you will need to update the pay rate for any employees affected by the minimum wage change, as Datacom doesn't automatically change wage rates.

For additional information, please refer to the more detailed communications sent out earlier in the month, or reach out to your usual Datacom Payroll contact.