Novopay: 1600 teacher complaints go unreported

Steven Joyce today issued the latest figures from PwC, which showed the number of complaints received over school staff pay administered through Novopay had fallen. Photo / APN

Up to 1600 teachers did not report complaints through official channels over mistakes with their pay administered through the Novopay pay roll system, according to a union survey.

The Post Primary Teachers Association surveyed 4500 teachers for the pay period ending February 20 and found 36 per cent had not formally reported errors with their pay because they were either "too embarrassed" or feared putting school administrators under more pressure.

PPTA general secretary Kevin Bunker said government figures being released fortnightly showed a much lower rate of errors.

Figures released by PricewaterhouseCoopers today for the period to March 6 showed 1.9 per cent of staff and 447 schools had officially reported problems.

Minister in charge of Novopay Steven Joyce today issued the latest figures from PwC, which showed the number of complaints received over school staff pay administered through Novopay had fallen.

They showed 1 per cent of staff complained through official Education Ministry channels about their pay, a drop from 1.9 per cent on the previous pay period.

Some 286 people were not paid, 185 were overpaid, and 373 were underpaid.

Mr Joyce said he expected the number of errors in payments would continue to drop in the next pay period.

Today the Government opened a Novopay backlog clearance unit, with 100 staff working to speed up dealing with pay problems.

PPTA is to launch legal action against the Secretary of Education over the payroll system.