Principals Warn Novopay Woes Not Over Yet

Principals are encouraged by the announcement today that Talent2 has withdrawn from delivering the sector’s controversial Novopay payroll, but warns there is a long way to go before principals will have any confidence in the system.

‘The announcement does not cure the Novopay shambles that the sector has been battling for the last three years,’ said Philip Harding, President of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation.

‘The same challenges of random errors, frustratingly slow problem resolution, inaccurate personnel data, and significantly increased workload will continue,’ he said. ‘Success will be determined by the way the new entity is managed, and more importantly, resourced to deal to these priorities,’ he said.

The Federation is pleased that the payroll system will now be under Government management because the causes of Novopay shortcomings will now be available to the public and there will be greater accountability.

‘We have battled to get any clear understanding of the defects behind the Novopay failures in large part because of the commercial sensitivity surrounding the Talent2 relationship,’ said Harding

The Federation continues to call on Government to make a significant and permanent adjustment to operational funding to compensate for the very real increase in costs that are being borne by schools through the inadequacies of the Novopay system.

‘We are pleased to see that some money has finally come back to the tax payer from Talent2 as part of this settlement ($18-22m). We would like to see that money reinvested in the schools to alleviate the extra costs that they incur and will continue to incur into the future,’ said Harding

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