Payroll Update 15 September 2022
Kia ora koutou
In this Payroll Update:
- Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day
- KiwiSaver remediation and loss-of-investment-earnings
- Reminder: check your Pay Ending report before end of term
- Holiday pay reduction for some teachers
- Teacher aide increments automatically applied unless deferred
- Upcoming scheduled outage
Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day
New Zealand will mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with a one-off public holiday on Monday, 26 September 2022. This means that all state and state-integrated schools and kura will be closed on this day.
Normal public holiday requirements under the Holidays Act apply. Teachers and principals will be paid as usual. All non-teachers with set hours will also be paid for the public holiday, on the basis of the number of hours they would normally work, if Monday, 26 September is a day that they would usually work.
Non-teachers paid by timesheet will need to have a timesheet submitted for Monday, 26 September for their normal hours if they would normally work on that day (as with all public holidays except the public holidays in the Christmas/New Year period).
We will advise you if this changes.
KiwiSaver remediation and loss-of-investment-earnings
Recently, the Ministry of Education paid remediation and compensation for the loss-of-investment-earnings to current and former school employees enrolled in KiwiSaver. They also remediated current school employees who have exited KiwiSaver and were owed remediation from contribution errors.
The Ministry is now making payments to former employees who have exited KiwiSaver and were owed remediation and contribution payments.
Some former school employees received incorrect employer contributions into their KiwiSaver account because of payroll errors made between 22 August 2012 and 17 November 2021.
On 15 September 2022, the Ministry will be contacting former school employees who are affected by the KiwiSaver employer contribution errors but have exited KiwiSaver, to let them know about the remediation and compensation payment and how it is being made. The contact will be made initially via email, text and then letter. Affected former employees can register at: https://remediate.education.govt.nz/
Affected former employees (including the estates of deceased employees) will need to provide the Ministry with additional information, including their nominated bank account, relevant tax code and validation details, before payment of remediation and loss-of-investment-earnings compensation can be paid. Payment will be made by the Ministry to the individual employee’s bank accounts once they respond with this information. This will take 4 to 6 weeks from the date affected former employees’ details are validated.
To ensure no one will be left disadvantaged, the compensation for the loss-of-investment-earnings has been calculated using the investment returns from the highest performing KiwiSaver default scheme growth fund. The Ministry has worked with PwC to ensure that the compensation for loss-of-investment earnings payment has been calculated correctly.
More information about the payments Information about the payments is available on the Ministry’s website https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/changes-in-education/kiwisaver-remediation-and-compensation
What do you need to do?
There is nothing you need to do. If employees have any questions, please direct them to the Ministry’s website.
Keeping yourself safe from phishing scams
Phishing is when someone uses an email, text, or phone call to try and get access to sensitive information (like online banking login and passwords).
We will NOT be asking affected former employees for their online banking login and password. We will however contact them directly from @education.govt.nz and via a text SMS to remind them to register. The text they will receive will direct them to the Ministry of Education’s website.
Note: the URL addresses above are being provided for information purposes only. To protect yourself from email/online scams you should verify the source and the target URL before taking any action.
Reminder: check your Pay Ending report before end of term
Please check your Pay Ending report before the end of term to see if any jobs need to be extended or terminated.
The Pay Ending report shows employees whose jobs are due to end in the next 90 days, and who will not be paid after the job-end-date shown. It also shows jobs that have ended but have not been terminated (known as lapsed). It is available on the EdPay portal with your other reports.
Lapsed fixed-term jobs will be automatically terminated two pay periods after the employee's job-end-date. Lapsed permanent jobs will need to be terminated by your school. A job will show as lapsed in the EdPay portal if the employee's end date is in the past. It can still be extended at this point. There is more information about this on the EdPay website: EdPay | Reports | Pay Ending report
Holiday pay reduction for some teachers
If a teacher takes unpaid leave during a school term a holiday pay reduction may be needed.
At the beginning of each vacation period, required holiday pay reductions are calculated for all teachers who have taken unpaid leave during the term just completed (in some instances, further holiday pay reductions are required resulting from prior terms).
The holiday pay reduction will be made from the employee's pay that falls in that vacation period. As each sector has its own set of holiday pay reduction calculation rules, there are links to each collective agreement on the EdPay website: EdPay | Tools to help you | A-Z | H | Holiday pay reduction for teachers
Teacher aide increments automatically applied unless deferred
After the Teacher Aide Pay Equity Claim settlement, the teacher aides listed on your Attestation report are entitled to an automatic yearly increment.
If a teacher aide has not met performance standards OR is not eligible to progress from Grade BC step 05 to step 06 (as their work remains with matrix Grade B), please defer by placing a N in the appropriate field and return the signed report to our School Account Team. These are the only reasons a teacher aide may have their increment deferred. Schools must discuss a deferral with the teacher aide two months before it is to be applied.
Upcoming scheduled outage
There will be a planned EdPay outage from 6am, Saturday 8 October 2022 until 6am, Monday 10 October 2022 for scheduled maintenance.
Ngā mihi
Education Payroll team