3.30pm: The NSW Department of Education has moved to clarify concerns over a payroll glitch that saw teachers not get paid.
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A spokesman said the department’s official pay day was the second Thursday of each pay period.
“To ensure staff are paid by this date, some payments are processed ahead of time,” the spokesman said.
“Due to an administrative delay, some payments for this pay period may not be paid ahead of time but will be deposited today and tomorrow by the official pay day.
“This delay is not related to the roll-out of the new payroll system.”
A NSW Teachers Federation spokesman also confirmed the error had been corrected, adding some staff would likely have already received the money into their bank accounts.
“It will arrive in people’s accounts according to the time their bank releases the funds. Everyone will be paid before the end of the pay period [Thursday].”
11.50am: Illawarra teachers are not being paid on Wednesday, owing to a payroll system error affecting teachers across the state.
The Mercury understands the Department of Education is using a new payroll system, which has encountered an error.
One Illawarra teacher told the Mercury that teachers at her school had been advised by the principal that those who usually received payment through their bank on a Wednesday, would not be receiving it until Thursday at the earliest.
She said many teachers were concerned at the delay, especially where they had direct debits scheduled to come out of their accounts on pay day.
Wollongong MP Paul Scully has been made aware of the issue and said he was concerned teachers relying on their pay – which is delivered fortnightly – would be left in unexpected financial difficulty.
“Obviously if people have got mortgage payments and all sorts of other direct debits, they’ll find themselves easily in accidental default of those payments when they’re processed and incur bank fees on top of it, all because of an IT glitch,” Mr Scully said.
“I’d ask any bank who experiences such a problem because of an unacceptable blunder on a pay system to be sympathetic in their treatment of their customers.”
The Department of Education has been contacted for comment.
More to come.