"Making this first payment to our former employees is a significant step forward," he said.
"We are also calling for former employees from Health New Zealand Taranaki (formerly Taranaki DHB) to make sure their registration is complete, as we know that there are around 2200 former employees who are still owed. Their payments will then be scheduled at a later date."
Health NZ has around 130,000 former staff members and 90,000 current employees across 24 payrolls affected by the Holidays Act remediation programme, which covers the period since May 1, 2010.
As well as the former employees paid on Thursday, 85,334 current employees on 21 payrolls have already received remediation payments.
Thursday's payment brought the total to $652.4 million paid to current and former staff so far.
Not all employees or former employees were due to receive a payment, as some people were paid correctly, McKenzie said.
"Payments have been processed at different rates because each former DHB has unique factors affecting the amount owed. Each payroll is remediating current employees first, then former employees."
Health New Zealand expects to finish repayments to current staff in the remaining three districts of Midcentral, Lakes and Whanganui early next year.
Meanwhile, former Health NZ employees who may be owed holiday pay should register with the national portal for former employees, tewhatuora.govt.nz, or from the home page of the Health NZ website.