Novopay nightmare goes on

Each fortnight, Tauranga teacher Felicity Garland wonders if she is going to get paid.

She is one of the thousands of Western Bay education professionals who are caught up in the Novopay disaster that has plagued the education sector for six months.

Mrs Garland has had pay discrepancies since Novopay's inception, including being dumped from the system despite working at Kaka St Special School for five years.

"It was at the end of Christmas and my pay was stopped. It was as if I didn't exist," she said.

"All my records had to be sent back to Novopay to be put back into the system."

In the last pay, which was on Tuesday night, Mrs Garland received her salary but none of the additional allowances she was entitled to.

The previous pay period she was underpaid by almost 90 per cent.

In the most recent pay, four Kaka St Special school staff were not paid, six did not receive their allowances, three were underpaid and one was overpaid.

The number of teachers with pay issues in the latest pay round had not been calculated at edition time but a spokesperson from the education union NZEI said calls to its helpdesk had not eased.

President of Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association and the principal of Brookfield School, Robert Hyndman, said his school had been affected in Tuesday night's pay. Staff at Mount Maunganui College and Tauranga Intermediate were also affected.