David
Shearer
Labour Leader

12 March 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT
Send debt collectors back to Steven Joyce
Debt collectors trying to claw back Novopay overpayments from teachers should be sent straight back to where they came from – Steven Joyce’s office, says Labour Leader David Shearer.

“Novopay is a complete shambles. One week teachers are overpaid, the next they are underpaid. Thousands of teachers across the country have no salary certainty at all.

“Yet in the middle of this debacle Steven Joyce wants to send in the debt collectors. That’s simply outrageous. Teachers have just as much right to send debt collectors to Steven Joyce’s office to ask for the money they are owed.

“He needs to sort the mess out first and make sure all teachers are getting paid properly. Then he can sort who owes who.

“On behalf of teachers I say to Steven Joyce, ‘call off your dogs’.

“Novopay is causing huge stress for teachers and schools throughout New Zealand. Sending in the debt collectors shows that Steven Joyce has no sympathy for them whatsoever.

“Mr Fixit has spent the past two months telling everyone he was going to solve Novopay. Clawing back debts while the system is still broken is a failed solution,” says David Shearer.

ENDS

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