Teachers are picketing in Tauranga today to protest the ongoing problems and lack of resolution to the Novopay system.
To mark the six months since the introduction of the flawed education payment system teachers gathered outside Tauranga MP and Labour Minister Simon Bridges' office on Devonport Road to protest.
Teachers are also meeting in Te Puke town centre as part of the nationwide movement.
Tauranga NZEI spokesperson Shona Woodhead says Tauranga teachers are still being overpaid, underpaid or not being paid at all.
While school boards of trustees are helping them out when required, the stress and uncertainty is impacting on teachers' jobs.
'This affects everybody in education from the bottom to the top,” says Shona.
'They don't know when their pay is going to come, or whether it is over or under.”
While the minister in charge of Novopay Steven Joyce's entry into the debacle received a lot of media coverage at the time, nothing has happened since, says Shona.
'There are still just as many problems.”
Teachers are meeting outside Simon Bridges offices on Devonport Road.
The NZEI says that after six months the Novopay mess is worse than ever, and an even bigger mess today than it was last week.
The NZEI is demanding a support package for schools be developed that recognises immediate workload issues, poor resolution processes and stress school staff are facing.
It has asked for an immediate package of measures that include setting clear and transparent service standards for the Novopay help desk, establishing regionally based positions to assist payroll administrators and individuals who are having problems that need urgent fixes, an extension on the deadline for school charter reporting, a free Employee Assistance Programme support, and a communications package that shows genuine understanding of the difficulties teachers are facing and clear and concise information about where to go for assistance and what support can be expected.
The NZEI also wants a small one-off financial payment to schools acknowledging the additional stress and the impact Novopay has created.
32 comments
Not it is NZEI
Posted on 05-03-2013 08:13 | By tabatha
Many years ago it use to be the PPTA protesting, time they let rip again as well. When teaching had someone tell me that NZEI was weak and then all of a sudden things changed.
Fantasies
Posted on 05-03-2013 08:38 | By YOGI
Less than one percent of pays stuffed, not actually that bad. Anyway if teachers think it is that bad then go get a job somewhere else, Ops ... I guess that they can't, guess that no other mug overpays so much, what the heck if have to wait a week to be over paid.
boo hoo
Posted on 05-03-2013 12:18 | By CC8
Like a bunch of adolescents who have never left school, open your eyes and see the real world, instead of pretending you are the gods of this world. Get a life teachers, when you are perfect, then start moaning about a 1% problem. You are lucky you have jobs at all. Go back and teach the kids some useful impartial life skills, instead of left wing propaganda.
I wonder
Posted on 05-03-2013 12:39 | By Persephone
how long it would take to get Novopay fixed or replaced if the schools stayed closed until it was...
So sad...
Posted on 05-03-2013 12:45 | By penguin
YOGI - Your comments would be expected from someone with little understanding of the situation. I bet you would lead the charge if your "income" (from whatever source) was stuffed around for 6 months with little resolution in sight. Spare a thought, if you can, for all the office staff who have worked their butts off trying to get answers and information from an inept provider. Over 30 office staff have resigned from stress issues related to the Novopay debacle. I suppose you will have something cynical to say about them, too? Best you pull the cotton wool around yourself and continue to ignore the reality of life; until it affects you!
Fantasies?
Posted on 05-03-2013 14:31 | By k130
YOGI, I am not sure where you get your figure from but, by Feb 13 over 14,000 tachers and support staff had been grossly underpaid. Its a shame you dont value teachers and the job they do. My husband and I are teachers and we have been underpaid by a significant amount, normally calm people, I can tell you that it is very stressful, as it is not a simple, fair, logistical process to go through to get the money back. We have lost complete faith in a system that has many further implications that we have not seen yet. YOGI I hope that you have a better understanding of other current affairs and how they affect people before commenting.
Rastus
Posted on 05-03-2013 15:18 | By rastus
Fantasies is quite right - what a load of whiners - if they put as much effort into teaching then perhaps we would not have so many illiterate kids laving school!
What are you smoking YOGI
Posted on 05-03-2013 15:22 | By Anj82
How would you like it if your boss didnt pay you? Or not enough to cover your mortgage/rent expenses? And that it has been going on for months? As for overpaid, when I am finished Uni that will cost me 20K i will only come out earning just over 40k? and although my teaching hours will be 9-3 I will have hours of planning for the next day as well as meetings and sports groups? Peoples ignorance never fails to astound me.
Perspective
Posted on 05-03-2013 16:50 | By [email protected]
If MPs pay was affected in the same way, Novapay would have been corrected or axed months ago. Easy to criticise but believe you me teachers do a great job in all aspects of teaching, especially as an increasing number of families do not provide basic life skills these days.
At Rastus
Posted on 05-03-2013 18:36 | By kiwisan
Laving!! LOL That says enough about your comments! To CC8 left wing propaganda!! Hahaha. Enough said .... I can not believe the comments about percieved moaning by teachers?? ....its idiots like Rastus and CC8 etc who are the true WHINGERS!! Gotta have a laugh at these ...
Accusing teachers
Posted on 05-03-2013 18:42 | By peterin
Rastus, before you start accusing teachers about putting little effort into the literacy levels of their students, perhaps you could improve on your own. "Leaving" has an "e" in it. It's one of the five vowels in the English language. As for the rest of you banging on about teachers being overpaid, I suggest you get a degree or use the one you have to join them. If it was such a fantastic career option with enormous salaries and extensive holidays, wouldn't everyone be a teacher? I mean what's stopping you from taking the leap; literacy inadequacies perhaps? For the record, it's largely the part-time teachers and support staff whose wages have been affected. I think you will find that there are a large group of education staff out there protesting on their behalf. Honestly, have a word with yourselves people!!
..
Posted on 06-03-2013 09:11 | By maccachic
Those complaining about illiterate kids, how about you spend some time educating and teaching your children instead of relying on others. Children spend the majority of time away from School and education starts at home. Far too many people blame everyone else without taking a hard look at their own failings. You raise your children you are responsible for their outcomes. I wonder how those bashing teachers would cope if there pay was constantly stuffed up, hypocritical much?
The moaners
Posted on 06-03-2013 13:30 | By YOGI
The figures were from the report by PWC to Joyce, the minister PM Key appointed to sort the mess out. perhaps you should go and look and read it. The pay of teachers should be related to perfornace, as 1/2 the students on average fail (although teachers dont want to tell them that? as it may create a self confidence issue for teachers ...??) then teachers should get 1/2 pay as they are only doing 1/2 their job. Like having a real job in the real world a 50% failure rate would mean that you need to find a new job more suitable to your ability i.e. not to complicated, simple, easy, no thinking required at all.
How many teachers?
Posted on 06-03-2013 14:14 | By YOGI
14,000 underpaid WOW how many teachers are there lurking around really? Did not think that there would even be that many in total never mind the few underpaid, nevermind the few overpaid. How did it get so high?
ANJ 82
Posted on 06-03-2013 14:19 | By YOGI
The good stuff, perhaps you could widen your thinking a bit, out in the real world all are under paid compared to teachers, they all do a good job and pay tax so as teachers can all be nice and comfy while overpaid. I think that there are twice as many teachers as needed and they are over paid twice to much also. That would save 75% of the education budget, then employ more at the new and better rate of pay and so then improve the quality of educaiton. PS it is about time teachers had "real" results based pay, the bottom 5-10% of teachers should be automatically dropped off the payrol each year, that would really improve the educaiton system 10 fold.
Not just a teacher
Posted on 06-03-2013 21:06 | By Anj82
Yogi i thought so! I spent 10 years in the workforce before retraining, and was making as much as I will as a teacher. Yes everybody in NZ is underpaid other than MP's. If you think teaching is cushy you mustnt have spent a whole day in a classroom. If you have kids of your own multiply that to get 30 and think of all the learning they get in their school life. My own kids are in classes with 30 others, I am teaching in classes with over 30, how is that too many teachers?? How are they overpaid when people on the benefit get slightly less than a teacher with a university degree?
As for performance pay....
Posted on 06-03-2013 21:13 | By Anj82
Am I supposed to have a drop in pay if I have students with ADHD, or dont want to learn, or have aspergers so dont achieve in the normal way, or havent had breakfast/lunch so cant focus, or havent come to school knowing their basic ABC's or how to write their name? I plan to teach in the lowest decile area, who typically achieve the lowest but have the biggest life challenges - does that mean I deserve less pay if they dont achieve as highly but are still making an improvement?
Anj82
Posted on 07-03-2013 02:11 | By TERMITE
Been to school, teachers life is easy, 30-50 kids is not a problem. AHDH, take the sugar and chemicals out of the crap food they eat, problem solved. Pay performace would be rated year on year not across the country, so no disadvantage there. If there is absolute certainty in a job then the incentive to do better fades away as means nothing. Life needs that "survival factor" to encourage results, it is also self determining.
For Yogi
Posted on 07-03-2013 09:59 | By penguin
I feel sad for you when reading your ignorant and bigoted ravings about teachers. Pity you don't put your energy into something worthwhile like, perhaps, volunteering to work in a school as a helper. It might modify your stance somewhat!
Hello Pengiun
Posted on 07-03-2013 12:11 | By TERMITE
Thanks for teh positive and helpful comments, sadly I have to work in a real job and work hard to make enough money to pay lots of tax so as a bunch of teachers can be overpaid. I don't have the time as a result to be able to wander the streets moaning as I wouldn't be paid to do it. Taht means I pay less tax and the country gets further in debt ... comprendae!
Blaming teachers
Posted on 07-03-2013 16:45 | By morepork
...for this debacle is like blaming ducks for being around in the shooting season. They don't have a lot of choice and are mostly committed to what they do. After a lifetime working in IT I can tell you that basic, standard, checks and balances were not carried out with this system and it is no surprise to anyone with industry exerience that it would be a fiasco. Payroll IS a difficult application where you have multiple awards, designations, hours, Union agreements, flexible holidays, contract terms, penalties, and everything from janitors and groundsmen to Head teachers and Eduction Specialists all needing to be catered for. But it CAN be done. There are some basic fundamentals though: You would NEVER replace an existing system on this scale without parallel running to ensure that the new system gets the same results as the old one. You would NEVER have no possibility to fall back to the old system if the new one proves flawed. There is much more... It seems obvious to me that this has been driven politically and not professionally. It just HAPPENS to be the Teachers, but it could have been ANYONE (health professionals, police, community workers, etc) who is not employed by a commercial company. The teachers have every right to be upset; they have been shafted by incompetence and politics at a number of levels and there is no sign of it being fixed. A brave and just Government would eat its mistake and get some relief out to them.
Morepork
Posted on 08-03-2013 09:59 | By YOGI
Committed is about right, I can understand No-more-pay problems if the teacher numbers were 1/2 hen the pays would be right thre are to many of them is the problem.
@Yogi
Posted on 08-03-2013 12:47 | By morepork
So, your real beef is that there are too many teachers? We should be so lucky. If you have never spent a day in a room with 30+ children and tried to ensure they get some benefit from the experience, then you really have no basis for your argument. I have, and I quit teaching as a young man because I realised the stress far outweighed the fiscal benefits. We are lucky to have committed people like Anj82 who are NOT in it for the money, primarily, but who have every right to expect they will be paid as part of the contract they have entered into. Teaching is NOT a "soft option" job, neither is it a "9 'til 3" job with huge holidays. The majority of teachers in NZ are doing it because they care about the kids. They might not have started with that motivation but after a little while the intangible rewards become apparent and keep people in the profession. (It's just as well, because most people who are in teaching could make far more money in industry...) We have all been to school; we know there were "good" and "bad" teachers, just as there were "good" and "bad" students, but the quality of our teachers is not what this debate is about. Don't let your like or dislike of the Teaching Profession deflect you from the fact that they have been shabbily treated by the Government, and the whole Novopay fiasco is a disaster. It isn't about there being too many teachers; it is about people in ANY walk of life being entitled to be paid on time.
More Pork please
Posted on 08-03-2013 14:58 | By YOGI
Yes you got it, yes I have been in school classes for years, to handle 50 kids is a breeze and adding value to most of the lives of these children is indeed a pleasure. The hours of work are like holiday camp most of the year, definitely when you add in 12+ weeks a year holidays. The money is just so good it is unbelievable. Does that clarify the truth of it all?
Yogi says...
Posted on 09-03-2013 11:56 | By penguin
"I have been in school classes for years...," I ask..'doing what?'
Penguin
Posted on 10-03-2013 16:20 | By YOGI
Working and loving it all, can't believe the money, get more some weeks less others, either way it is just the greatest whatever they pay me.
Yogi
Posted on 11-03-2013 08:44 | By penguin
You said ..."Working and loving it all...” Working as what in schools (teacher, support staff, caretaker, or some other role)? Your tone has changed dramatically from your first negative comments against teachers on 5/3/2013. What has brought this about?
For CC8
Posted on 11-03-2013 08:56 | By penguin
I suggest you take some of your own advice and spend some time in schools to find out what the "real job" of teaching is all about. You might then alter your bigoted perspective. I am suspect you did not like school very much. Regardless of your opinion, the fact is that NZ is in the top five out of 30+ OECD countries for its standard of educational achievement. This is because we have such dedicated professionals (teachers) who work collaboratively with other dedicated, positive people.
Protest against Nova Pay
Posted on 19-03-2013 15:47 | By YOGI
Excellant, so lets sack the pay clerk, Can I back date that? Love to and that would save a fortune and some, in fact the Government would not then need to borrow $300m a week, in fact maybe end up in surplus. What a wonderful idea, at last teachers pay will reflect value.
No pay master?
Posted on 22-03-2013 00:19 | By Crash test dummies
Means no one makes any pays to anyone. So that will be worse than before, it will become "No-pay"rather than "Nova-pay"
Re..boo hoo
Posted on 25-03-2013 21:44 | By groutby
Love your comments CC8, totally sick and tired of teachers moaning and complaining, ...funny how you never hear from them or their socialist union during their amazingly long (and paid) holidays eh?
groutby...
Posted on 28-03-2013 11:37 | By penguin
You may yet come to eat your words....
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to make a comment.