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Politics | Education

Novopay set to stay

Meanwhile, the Opposition is asking whether enough is enough.

The pay system has been in place for seven months and it's causing all sorts of issues for schools.

Labour MP, Chris Hipkins asked in Parliament today, "If we are all accountable to the people of NZ for the decisions we make will the Minister of Education resign her position seeing that the taxpayer are now having to fork out $11 million to fix up the mess she's made with Novopay”

The question was also posed that after much resolution seeking, should Novopay just be discarded?

To which National member Nikki Kay responded,“excuse me Mr Speaker on behalf of the Minister, No and when we look at the issue of Novopay we've done a huge amount... and the Minister responsible Steven Joyce today announced a huge package of support.”

Minister Steven Joyce says the system will stay but offered a solution. He says a 6 million dollar package will be allocated as a one-off support package across the sector.

Compensation will be awarded to all schools affected at a rate of $105 per teacher with a further $500 to the school itself. So a school with 10 teachers affected stands to receive $1550 in compensation

Labour MP, Shane Jones says, “Steven Joyce has said himself that he'd fix the problem, so we'll see in time whether this does it.”

A review on Novopay revealed the system was unable to cope with the extra data. However, the Minister was more optimistic, referring instead to another finding in the report that says a stable system can be achieved.

The Novopay debacle is expected to be sorted by June.

Reporter: Heeni Brown.