Some of New Zealand's teachers are getting paid less than the minimum wage as a result of a bureaucratic blunder that the Education Ministry itself says is unacceptable.
As the end of term one nears, some teachers are still waiting for the pay issue to be resolved, and some are struggling to make ends meet.
As the sole earner for his family, with three kids, primary school teacher Ira Redepenning is having to sell everything he doesn't need, to get by.
"Got hundreds of dollars worth of insurance, childcare, other bills that've stacked up," Mr Redepenning told 1 NEWS.
That's because for nine weeks he has been paid less than minimum wage for his job as a teacher.
"It feels like that willingness and commitedness of teachers is getting abused by not paying us, realising that we're not going to jump out of the job," he said.
“It took 10 weeks to get paid correctly
And he's not alone, the primary teachers union saying some teachers are awaiting salary assessments.
"What's happening at the moment is that some of our first years are going through, still, the process of having their salary assessment completed. And that seems to be taking forever," said Lynda Stuart, NZEI president.
1 NEWS has spoken to other teachers in the same position.
"It took 10 weeks to get paid correctly. It seems to me like another way that teachers are devalued," one teacher said.
Another teacher, Tessa, said: "I am currently being paid as an untrained and unqualified staff member on a salary of $32,456 per annum."
Late this afternoon the Ministry of Education told 1 NEWS it has 661 salary assessment cases to assess over the next three weeks.
“These people have families to feed, they have young children
NZEI says for those working full time it's $86 a week below the new minimum wage.
"This is shocking. And if it's mere bureaucracy that is holding this up then that really needs to be looked at. These people have families to feed, they have young children, they absolutely should not be in this position," Ms Stuart said.
The Education Minister, Chris Hipkins, and his ministry refused on-camera interviews today. Instead in written statements, the ministry said the situation was unacceptable and Mr Hipkins said he's confident the situation will be fixed.
It's not the first time the education sector has had issues in this area, following the saga with payroll system Novopay.
"We shouldn't have any brackets below the minimum wage. This needs to be addressed absolutely urgently. We did bring it up with the ministry just recently," Ms Stuart said.
Mr Redepenning has had his salary assessment completed this week and will be getting reimbursed for the shortfall in his next pay cheque.
"I've definitely been hanging out for that pay to come through," he said.
But others are still waiting, and the message from their union president is, "It should never ever ever happen again."
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