Ministry of Education to get billed for Novopay debacle

6 November 2012
Immediate Release

Ministry of Education to get billed for Novopay debacle

Primary principals are to begin invoicing the Ministry of Education because of the ongoing frustrations over the new Novopay payroll system.

NZEI Te Riu Roa National Secretary Paul Goulter says the Novopay debacle has been enormously time consuming and has placed a huge amount of stress on many schools.

He says this has resulted in very real costs in extra time and stress for principals and their administration staff.

“It has resulted in literally thousands of wasted hours across the country and has been taking attention away from important things such as teaching and learning.

“We’ve reached the point where principals and support staff are totally fed-up. The Ministry has had two months to sort the problems out. It is clearly not doing enough and has instead been trying to downplay the problems.

“Government policy changes have been placing more and more stress on schools and this is quickly becoming the final straw,” he says.

“The Ministry needs to take responsibility and be more responsive to the concerns of schools.”

He says the Minister of Education, Hekia Parata will also be sent copies of invoices and NZEI Te Riu Roa is hoping that she will show some leadership over this issue.

“We expect that the final bill will run into millions of dollars,” he says.

ENDS

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