Payroll update 27 May 2026

News for School Payroll Staff

 



Kia ora koutou


In this update, we’ve focused on providing more clarification around the changes relating to recent collective agreements. We’ve also included the key changes in the March 2026 promulgated Primary Teachers’ Individual Employment Agreement (IEA) that will show in payslips from PP05.

Primary Teachers’ IEA March 2026

This information is only relevant for people who signed the March IEA. Any teachers who signed after 15 April will be on the April IEA, which we will implement in PP07. We will provide more information then.

The March IEA is for permanent and fixed-term primary teachers who are not members of NZEI. It provides increases in pay rates and unit rates.

Effective dates

  • The March IEA was promulgated on 11 March 2026 and is effective from the date it was signed
  • Payslips from 9 June 2026 (pay day PP05) will show the new rates and any backdated pay.

Eligibility

Employees must not have been an NZEI Te Riu Roa member at the date of signing (ie, not have awards PTC5, PTC7 or PDR5).

Increase to pay rates 

Base salary pay rates increase from the date both parties signed the IEA, and again from 28 January 2027, for:

  • trained teachers,
  • untrained teachers, and
  • speech language therapists.

Allowances

Unit rate increase

The unit rate for permanent and fixed term units increase to:

  • $5,100 from the date both parties sign the IEA, and
  • $5,250 from 28 January 2027.

Unit rates are not pro-rated for part-time teachers. Both full-time and part-time employees receive the full amount, except in case of a full-time job share position where permanent units can be paid proportionately.

IEA change screen

If teachers at your school signed the April Primary Teachers’ IEA, please use the IEA change screen in EdPay to tell us the date they signed. If you haven’t yet advised us about a teacher who signed the March IEA, please send us an Individual employment agreement (IEA) change (EP22) form.


Clarifications

We have sent you a lot of information recently, mostly about changes relating to the new employment agreements. This section provides more clarification about some of those changes.

Two allowances with “mentor” in the title

Here’s some clarification to help you differentiate between the two mentor allowances that have had changes recently.

  • Mentor allowance is the new name for the Mentor teacher allowance (EP36m) form. We’ve renamed this form because U1 & U2 principals can now apply for the allowance if there’s no eligible teacher at their school to mentor provisionally certified teachers.
  • Principal mentor allowance is a new allowance for principals mentoring other principals. If your school’s principal has been selected by the Ministry, please send us an Allowance changes for teachers and principals (EP16t) form and use the code PMA8.

Curriculum change payment and the process for PPCBU principals

If a PPCBU principal requests the curriculum allowance after the first tranche payment, they can only request subsequent instalments (eg, 2-5). They cannot apply for retrospective payments.

MITA rates table

We included the MITA rates table in the Primary Principals’ Collective Agreement (PPCA) section of the previous payroll update by mistake. While the rates in the table are correct, they’ve been paid at that rate since 2023 and were not changed in the new PPCA.

Variations to terms of employment

We’ve had some questions about what schools need to do when new employment agreements are promulgated, particularly for employees who signed Variations (VTEs) while a new collective agreement was still in negotiation.

For most employees:

  • if they are union members, we will automatically transfer them to the new collective agreement in EdPay, and
  • if they are not union members, we need schools to let us know the date the employee signs an IEA.

However, there are some exceptions that might cause confusion. For example:

  • union members who signed a VTE after their CA lapsed may show on the IEA change screen in EdPay, or
  • some employees may have joined a union after the CA lapsed.

What we need schools to do

This flowchart shows what we’d like you to do for each employee when new agreements are promulgated.

Signing the new IEA

We have removed the VTE from the IEA change screen because the VTE was only intended to cover the interim period. If you still need to inform us about someone who signed a VTE, please send us an Individual employment agreement (IEA) change (EP22) form.

It’s important that non-union members sign the new IEA, even if they previously signed a VTE. Please let them know that the IEA either continues or improves the terms in the VTE.

Please also advise employees not to delay signing the new IEA. They will receive the new rates from the date of signing, not the effective date of the agreement, so it’s a good idea to move to the new IEA as soon as they can.


IEA change screen

We will remove the following IEAs from the IEA change screen in EdPay next Monday.

  • School Caretakers, Cleaners and Canteen Staff IEA (promulgated 2 September 2025)
  • Community Education Staff IEA (promulgated 12 December 2025)
  • Secondary Teachers’ IEA (promulgated 19 December 2025)

If any employees at your school signed these IEAs, please let us know by 5.30pm, Monday 1 June. After then, you’ll need to fill out an EP22 form for these IEAs instead.


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Education Payroll