No Xmas cheer from Novopay

Schools might be closing their doors for the year, but Craig Foss and Hekia Parata should be cancelling their own holidays until they have fixed Novopay, says Chris Hipkins.

A staggering 97% of the more than 800 school principals who responded to a Principals’ Federation survey on Novopay have no confidence that the teachers’ pay system will be efficient within the next 12 months.

In the last wage round 84% of the schools reported that their latest pay day contained errors for salaries and wages, while 90.8% had errors in holiday payments.

“This survey show just how badly Novopay is performing.  More than a third of primary and intermediate school principals responded to this survey, and the results are damning.

“Every teachers’ pay day it is the same story – more errors, more excuses, but no progress.  Just this weekend we learned of Waihopai School teacher aide Sharon Watson, who normally gets paid $18.21 an hour, receiving a payslip which says her hourly rate for 2.71 days of annual leave term time was $11,193,300.  How on earth can something like that happen?

“This has been going on now since August.  It beggars belief.  Hekia Parata and Craig Foss should have rolled their sleeves up months ago and sorted this mess out.

“Instead we are a week out from Christmas, with school staff still living with the uncertainty of a botched payroll system.  Our teachers deserve a decent holiday, but perhaps Ministers Foss and Parata should stay at work until Novopay starts delivering,” says Chris Hipkins.