Novopay changes avoid the actual problem

13 March 2014

Novopay changes avoid the actual problem

Many long-suffering school staff will be infuriated by today’s announcement of planned changes to Novopay before immediate issues have been resolved.

NZEI Te Riu Roa spokesman Andrew Casidy said the ministry was trying to paint the front of the house while the back of the house was on fire.

“Staff continue to be underpaid, overpaid and unpaid and frustrated at the hours being spent fixing their problems. Resources need to go into fixes and training of service staff now. It’s staggering that $33 million has been spent fixing this system, with another $10 million projected by June, but it’s still a lemon.”

“Just this week, NZEI’s random phone survey of 30 schools found more than 80 per cent of schools having major problems with Novopay. We need immediate solutions to current issues, not ‘planned changes in the next six months,’” he said.

NZEI has been a member of an advisory group giving input to the ministry’s Preferred Service Delivery Model for Novopay. NZEI had previously informed the group that the resources and time spend on devising a future model must be immediately focussed on addressing the problems in the current delivery service.

At this morning’s final meeting of the advisory group, NZEI tabled a document stating that it “cannot support further promotion and resourcing of the ‘Preferred Service Delivery Model’ while there is insufficient focus and resources put into addressing the immediate problems with the current flawed system…Payroll processing has to improve before the sector can engage, not least because the level of frustration and lack of trust at the school level is now at dangerous levels.”

ENDS

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