News for School Payroll Staff

Kia ora koutou

1. Key dates
2. Primary teachers’ unit increase
3. All teachers’ and principals’ new sick leave entitlements
4. Primary Principals’(PPCBU) Collective Agreement variation new rates
5. School start dates cannot be on a holiday
6. Check your employee’s start dates
7. MITA and PBITA can now be added in EdPay
8. Cultural leadership allowance
9. Short-term relief teachers increase to maximum step

1. Key dates

Start of Year guides and help

• Start of Year step-by-step process (EdPay.govt.nz)
• Start of Year Guide 2024 (PDF, 1.5MB)
• Start of Year actions tool to find out whether to use EdPay or a form (EdPay.govt.nz)
• Start of Year 2024 video (opens in Vimeo.com, 4 mins)
• Annualisations video (opens in Vimeo.com, 2 mins)

2. Primary teachers' unit increase

Teachers covered by the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement or latest individual employment agreement (IEA) will receive a unit increase from $4,000 per annum per unit to $4,500 per annum per unit. You will see this increase in the SUE report for pay period 23 on 02/02/2024 (pay day 05/02/2024).

If you have already told EPL that your primary teachers are on the new IEA, then there is nothing you need to do, and they will automatically receive the unit increase.  If you haven’t told us about employees who moved onto the new IEA, please send an EP22 form and we will process these as soon as possible.

3. All teachers' and principals' new sick leave entitlements

New sick leave entitlements were introduced in the latest collective agreements (CAs) and IEAs for teachers and principals. Primary, secondary and area school teachers and principals, on the latest CA or IEA, will receive the same sick leave entitlements from 28/01/2024.

Teachers and principals will be given an initial allocation of 20 days of sick leave upon their first appointment to a state or state-integrated school. For every six months of continuous employment (up to 30 months) they will receive another 10 days. After that, they will receive 10 days for every 12 months of employment.

Teachers and principals employed before 28/01/2024 will receive the same entitlement, which will replace previous allocations of sick leave. A teacher’s new sick leave balance will be the new translated entitlement, minus any sick days previously taken. Unused sick leave is carried over. 

When transitioning to the new sick leave entitlement teachers and principals will have a new sick leave balance. No teacher will have a sick leave balance of less than 10 days or less than the balance they had at 27/01/2024. Teachers or principals on the latest CA or IEA, who have a negative sick leave balance as at 27/01/2024, will have this negative balance cleared. They will begin the new entitlement period with 10 days of sick leave. 

If you have already told EPL that your school’s teachers or principal are on the new IEA, then there is nothing you need to do, and they will see their updated sick leave balance according to the new entitlements on their pay period 23 pay slip. (Edit 2 February 2024: Updated sick leave balances will show on pay slips in pay period 24).

If you haven’t told us about a teacher or principal who has moved onto the new IEA, please send an EP22 form and we will process these as soon as possible.

The new sick leave entitlement table is on our website:

Sick leave entitlements for teachers and principals

4. Primary Principals' (PPCBU) Collective Agreement variation new rates

Primary principals on the PPCBU collective agreement will be paid the new rates as per the variation in pay period 22 (pay day 23/01/2024).

5. School start dates cannot be on a holiday

Your school's start date for 2024 cannot be a weekend or a regional or public holiday, e.g. if your school is in Auckland, Northland or Nelson the start date cannot be 29/01/2024, which is Auckland Anniversary Day, Northland Anniversary Day and Nelson Anniversary Day.

6. Check your employee's start dates

Term-time-only (TTO) employees

TTO employees do not always start back on the same day the school opens. To avoid people being overpaid for days they didn’t work, please make sure to enter their actual first day of work (up to 29/02/2024).

However, if they are starting at the school after 29/02/2024, please follow this process.

1. Enter their start date as 07/02/2024 (the latest day a school can open for instruction).
2. Book Leave without pay (LWOP) from 07/02/2024 until the day before they are due to begin work.

Returning fixed-term teachers

A returning fixed-term teacher’s start date will always be 28 January, no matter what date the school opens for instruction.

If a fixed-term teacher is starting after your school's start date, please see page 6 of the Start of Year Guide to see whether leave should be booked.

7. MITA and PBITA can now be added in EdPay

Māori Immersion Teacher Allowance (MITA) recognises the skills and knowledge required to teach the curriculum in te reo Māori. It is available to teachers and principals who meet the eligibility criteria set out in their CA or IEA. 

Pacific Bilingual Immersion Teaching Allowance (PBITA) recognises the skills teachers must have to deliver teaching and learning through a Pacific language in a bilingual or immersion context in a school or kura. It is available to primary principals on the PPCBU CA, and to primary principals and teachers, secondary teachers, and area school principals and teachers from 28/01/2024, who meet the eligibility criteria in their CA or IEA.

MITA and PBITA can now be added in EdPay for teachers on the latest CA or IEA.  Schools will be responsible for approving eligibility for their employees to receive an allowance.

Instructions for adding the MITA allowance in EdPay for teachers (EdPay.govt.nz)

Instructions for adding the PBITA allowance in EdPay for teachers (EdPay.govt.nz)

Go to EdPay training | Allowance changes (EdPay.govt.nz) for step-by-step instructions about making allowance changes in EdPay.

MITA requests for principals and teachers on older agreements will still need to be sent on a MITA form (EP37t) or the EP38t for the additional allowance.

PBITA requests for principals will need to be sent on a PBITA form (EP37p). Go to EdPay and forms (edpay.govt.nz) to download the latest versions of forms.

Eligibility criteria and immersion level info

For eligibility criteria for these allowances under the different employment agreements, and explanations of the different immersion levels, please go to the Ministry of Education’s website:

Māori Immersion Allowance – Education in New Zealand

Pacific Bilingual Immersion Teaching Allowance – Education in New Zealand

8. Cultural leadership allowance

For principals covered by the latest Primary Principals’ (NZEI) CA or the Area School Principals’ CA or corresponding IEAs:

• from 28/01/2024, principals of schools offering Level 1 or Level 2 te reo Māori or Pacific language immersion programmes, will receive a cultural leadership allowance of $5,000 per annum, paid fortnightly. Payment of this allowance will begin in pay period 23, pay day 05/02/2024
• there is nothing you need to do this allowance will be paid automatically to principals who meet the criteria.

More info on the Cultural leadership allowance for teachers covered by the Primary Teachers’ CA and the Area School Teachers’ CA will be communicated when it is available.

9. Short-term relief teachers increase to maximum step

The maximum annual salary step for short-term relief secondary and area school teachers will increase from Step 5 to Step 6 from 28/01/2024.

Secondary and area school teachers who hold (or have held) jobs at Step 6 or higher, will have their step increased on their day relief job to Step 6. 

Primary teachers will have the same change applied when the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement variation is implemented in pay period 3, pay day 30/04/2024.

There is nothing you need to do as these changes will be applied automatically.

Please refer to the Ministry’s website for more detailed info about the increases to maximum steps:

Changes to the Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement 2022-25 – Education in New Zealand

Changes to the Area School Teachers' Collective Agreement 2023-25 – Education in New Zealand

Changes to the Primary Teachers' Collective Agreement 2023–25 – Education in New Zealand

Ngā mihi

Education Payroll