New Zealand Teachers Bullied at School

Thousands of adjustments and special pay runs but still many are waiting. Failure at this level given the time the Ministry had to implement the changes with Novopay  is beyond belief.  Where was the acceptance testing and the parallel running of systems to ensure accuracy. Parallel running would have allowed schools more time to ensure the accuracy of reoccurring pays and highlighted the problems in advance. This is not being wise in hindsight it’s a normal prerequisite of such a large change and should have been part of the Ministry’s change management procedures.  Did anyone on the changeover team have the experience to implement such a large system change and why is it taking so long to get it all the payments sorted.

Any IT provider should target zero errors and zero down time. For the spokesperson on behalf of the Novopay Governance Board to say that the level of failure is within acceptable norms is extraordinary. A further claim that most of the errors were due to bank a/c number errors is fanciful as all the teachers I am aware of had been paid successfully previously.  All the errors I am aware of relate directly to Novopay and its implementation and should result in the sacking and replacement of this board and a close examination of the technical competence of the Ministry’s own IT people specifically those involved with the Novopay fiasco.

I cannot relate any of the information currently in the media to the reality I am becoming familiar with. There seems to be a deliberate attempt to downplay and understate the true numbers involved.  http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/224923/5000-school-staff-underpaid Quotes the numbers as 5000 underpaid and 15 not paid at all.  The TV3 news item mentions 4 in one school http://www.3news.co.nz/Pay-still-missing-for-some-teachers/tabid/423/articleID/268484/Default.aspx and the radio NZ article today also states 15 not paid http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/115468/meeting-on-school-payroll-problems an inquiry at Associate Education Minister  Craig Foss’s office today got the same number 15 and when I put to the staff member  “ if the numbers are so low why haven’t they all been individually contacted?” I was assured they had been.  At this stage I advised her that none of the unpaid staff I was in contact with had been; there was genuine surprise.

Clearly the number unpaid is much higher than the number being claimed by the Ministry of Education. Between the Radio NZ and TV3 Articles, 8 staff in 2 schools are unpaid. Clearly the number 15 unpaid is a gross underestimation. If a bank were trying to operate on a tenth of error rate that has occurred here, they would be out of business before they got started. The Ministry of Education has a lot of trust to recover here and owes and open explanation to the staff affected. Not just meetings with the principals. Some teachers still remain unpaid and no compensation is being discussed when they are contacted.

Filed under: Minedu, Minister, Novopay