Ministry gives effect to Employment Court decision

Media release
15 September, 2016

Ministry gives effect to Employment Court decision

The Ministry of Education is taking steps to put an Employment Court decision into action over the way support staff are paid, says the head of the Education Infrastructure Service Jerome Sheppard.

“The decision came after a court challenge by the union representing support staff, the NZEI. Employees will, of course, be paid in full exactly what they are entitled to, based on the actual time they have worked. The changes are solely to the way they are paid. Unfortunately this will mean that around 3000 support staff will not receive any pay for a fortnight in February. Their total pay for the year will be the same however.

“We have made every effort to resolve this issue with the NZEI. We would be happy to offer workers the chance to opt out of this change, but it would require union agreement.

“The gap in payments is the situation we were trying to avoid by structuring pay differently this year to plan around a quirk in the pay calendar. This year there are 27 fortnightly pay dates instead of 26, something that happens approximately every 11 years.

“Typically support staff don’t work the full year, and many choose to smooth out their income by having their pay annualised. That means their pay is stretched out over the whole year, including periods they’re not working.

“With 27 pay dates this year, we wanted to stretch out their pay over a longer period. Otherwise there would be one fortnight they went without.

“The NZEI challenged spreading the pay over 27 pays. We accept the finding of the Court that stretching pay over 27 dates instead of 26 was inconsistent with the collective agreement. The NZEI and Ministry agreed in Court that if 27 pays was wrong, then payments should have been spread over 26 pay periods, with no pay for the 27th pay period.

“We are contacting principals this week and putting information on our website to let support staff know how they are affected by this. Changes to pay will take effect in the October 26 pay cycle for annualised support staff covered by the collective agreement.

“Another 2700 support staff with annualised pay, who aren’t covered by the collective, will be offered the option of switching to having their pay over 26 pay dates if they wish,” says Mr Sheppard.

© Scoop Media