IT woes leave teachers out of pocket

Tens of thousands of teachers have been left underpaid, some by hundreds of euro, for the last month as IT problems have delayed salary increases due from the Department of Education.

The payment of increments due since early December could take at least another month to reach those affected. They are worth almost €200, or 8% extra, a month for some teachers at the lower end of the pay scale.

The rises would have been due in September but, under the 2013 Haddington Road Agreement (HRA), all public servants earning under €65,000 had increments paused for three months.

The department’s software was unable to reflect the rises in the fortnightly pay to those due them among 50,000-plus teachers on its payroll. Those newest to the profession are more likely to be owed money as they move up the salary scale yearly for the first 10-12 years teaching.

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland believes half its 17,000 member could be affected by the delays. Half of all primary teachers could also be owed money, according to the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), although the department says the numbers will not be clear until early next month.

INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan said the delay was unacceptable, as the department had more than a year to make the HRA-related adjustments.

“The department is quick to reduce pay but slow to restore it. There was no delay when the State decided to cut teachers’ pay, but it’s a different story when it comes to promised restoration,” she said.

Hundreds of Teachers’ Union of Ireland members in second-level schools may also be affected, but most work for education and training boards (ETBs) which have their own payroll systems.

The department told the Irish Examiner it hopes to pay deferred increments and arrears to primary teachers and special needs assistants on February 12, and to second-level teachers a week later.

It pays salary and pension to 98,000 people, but its payroll has become extremely complex, particularly with the introduction of three different salary scales for teachers, depending on when they started working.

“The development of the software to implement the HRA in the context of the numbers being paid on the payroll, the payroll complexities, and the complexity of the agreement itself has been a very difficult and complex task,” a spokesperson said.

“A further complication is the fact that the software programme, in addition to dealing with the deferred increments, has to calculate or re-calculate HRA allowances, taking cognisance of the impact of increments and allowances for those reaching €65,000,” she said.

The increments are worth €3,600 for some working more than 20 years, but only fall due every three to four years after 12 years’ service. For those whose teaching careers started in 2011, the increments owed are worth between €1,400 and €1,650.

But some who started teaching in 2013 should have moved to a €33,000 salary last month, a rise of almost €2,500, or €95 in each fortnightly pay packet.

More than 1,600 teachers were on the wrong pay rates for the 2012/2013 school year because the payroll system had problems with changes to reduced scales for those who started working in 2012. Almost €4m in arrears was paid in June 2013, with one teacher owed over €8,500.