Teachers likely to suffer more Novopay pain
The government is keen to stay with the education payroll provider and work out the issues.
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Infrastructure
Novopay’s new caregiver, Steven Joyce, has warned teachers the Novopay pain is not over just yet.
The economic development minister, who has been appointed to fix the education payroll shambles, admits there may not have been enough consultation with the most-affected staff.
Mr Joyce has today visited administrators at a Northland primary school and Wellington Girls’ College to discuss their concerns.
The system, responsible for paying 85,000 teaching staff fortnightly, was developed by Australian company Talent2 and introduced last September.
But it has been plagued with problems, including paying the wrong salaries to the wrong people or missing payments all together.
Mr Joyce says next week’s pay cycle – No 23 – will perhaps be the most challenging yet for Novopay.
He says so far he has met with most of the people involved with the development and implantation of the payroll system, including Talent2, and some of the ministry staff and their advisers.
“It’s my intention to meet with stakeholders over the next few days.
“It is important to get to the front line and talk to people directly involved with the payroll people, and I suspect there hasn’t been quite enough of that in a couple of places.
"You can’t actually deal with the issues unless you get in and see the issues for yourself,” Mr Joyce says.
And while he confirms there are a range of options available to him, he is uncertain at this stage which will be appropriate.
“I would say, at this point, there are no options which don’t involve some continued pain for a period of time while things get sorted.”
Mr Joyce also says he is committed to staying with Novopay and sorting it out rather than ditching it for another system. And he believes the two schools he has visited so far are also in favour if that.
Blair Cunningham
Mon, 28 Jan 2013
Mon, 28 Jan 2013
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Teachers likely to suffer more Novopay pain
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