Survey highlights real impact of Novopay

11 March 2013

Survey highlights real impact of Novopay

Around 36% of over 4500 secondary teachers who responded to a recent survey about Novopay problems say they experienced errors with the pay they received on 19 February.

The survey was conducted online by PPTA between 25 February and 5 March with questions about both the immediate and previous pay periods.

A report of the survey’s findings “Novopay Impacts” is available at www.ppta.org.nz.

Results of the survey put it at odds with official Novopay statistics that suggested a much lower rate of errors in the same pay period.

PPTA general secretary Kevin Bunker said this was most likely due to a surprising number of affected teachers (35.6%) who said they had not reported their pay errors to their school administrators because they were either too embarrassed or feared placing their schools under more pressure.

“This survey is the first real snapshot of what’s actually happening on the ground with Novopay errors. The picture is a lot more serious than government officials have let us believe,” he said.

In addition to gaining a lot of quantitative data, the survey also drew hundreds of qualitative comments from respondents about ways in which pay errors were impacting on their lives. Examples of these are as follows:

“Had to move out of rental property because unsure how long I would not be paid. This has caused major stress to me and my nuclear and extended family, especially my two infants. My health has been affected incredibly.”

“(Experienced) embarrassment of having to repeat story to bank when you can't meet mortgage payments.”

“(I had) anxiety about whether I would be paid correctly or paid at all. Our principal said before the first big pay in Feb that 50% of our staff would be paid incorrectly, that 4 people were not paid at all and one person was overpaid $12,000.”

ENDS

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