22 February 2013

Thanks minister Joyce but sympathy doesn't pay the mortgage - PPTA

Minister in charge of Novopay Steven Joyce is showing no sense of urgency over the human cost of Novopay, PPTA president Angela Roberts says.

Roberts attended a Novopay briefing yesterday expecting to see a survival package for schools, only to find there was no plan to consider.

The meeting focussed on inquiries into technical and accountability issues but not human ones. At a time when schools and their staff were struggling financially, mentally and physically this was inexcusable, Roberts said.

“Why hasn't Joyce announced what he can do for schools to help them through this nightmare? This has to be made a higher priority.

"The suffering that follows each pay day and the lack of support from the government is building to a pressure point among members," she said.

“We've given the government space, we've been professional and it just isn't working for us.

Sympathy doesn't pay the mortgage."

PPTA has been working with the ministry to try to solve the issues but was only now seeing any level of frankness and honesty, she said.

“It wasn’t until the Novodump documents were released that we discovered we were being treated as mushrooms on the Novopay reference group. While the ministry was telling us everything was fine, behind closed doors they were considering scrapping the whole project."

PPTA's executive is meeting today and will be considering what else can be done to give Joyce a sense of urgency. They will be looking at a range of actions, including using legal channels, she said.

“We will do what we need to do to make ministers understand that what is happening is far from acceptable.

“We put a rescue package to them and they’ve been stalling us for more than a week. Where is it?”

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