Ever since August last year when a new computer pay system started, there have been major problems with teachers’ pay. A few teachers have been paid too much, many have been paid too little and some have not been paid at all. In total, this is about 19,000 pay mistakes. It has been a major headache for schools trying to sort out the problems.
This week, Minister Steven Joyce who is trying to fix the problems, is giving schools extra money to help them pay for more staff to check that everyone gets paid correctly. Each school will get $500 plus $105 for every teacher. This is a total of $6m.
In addition, a review of the Novopay computer program showed that it still has many very serious mistakes in it but it may be possible to fix them before June. They need more staff – and better staff – to make changes to the program. The Ministry of Education has taken on 60 extra staff to fix problems from the last seven months. DataCom, which had the contract for paying teachers before August last year, is also working on their pay program. It is possible that the Ministry of Education may have to return to the DataCom pay system.
Vocabulary
• major – very serious
• headache for schools – a big worry
• sort out – fix
• review – check
Questions
1. What are some of the problems for people who do not receive their correct pay?
2. Who should pay for the mistakes?