New Zealand School Trustees Association
Memorandum: 2008/2
School: «School» (school number «SchoolID»)
Principal : «p2» «p3» (via email «p4» )
(please advise any changes to above addresses)
Chair : «c2» «c3» (via email «c4» )
(where no email is indicated then the memo is sent via principal)
From : Colin Davies, NZSTA, Manager Service Delivery ( cdavies@nzsta.org.nz
)
Date : 16 February 2008
Subject: Start of Year Update on Employment Matters
Purpose : This memo provides principals and chairs with some of the personnel matters that need to be considered or reminded on for the start of the school year.
Employment Agreements Must be in Writing : A reminder that every employee must have a written employment agreement. It can be either an individual employment agreement (IEA) or a collective agreement (CA). See the NZSTA website for the process to follow.

Settlements of collective agreements : They have come thick and fast in the past
2 months. We will send out the specifics details for each part of the sectors and the
Ministry will be producing appropriate Circulars. Overall the situation is:
The following have now been settled and ratified:

Secondary Principals

Secondary Teachers

Primary Principals

Support Staff/Kaiarahi i te Reo

Adult and Community Educations (ACE)
The following are expected to be ratified before the end of February:

Primary School Teachers

Area School Principals

Area School Teachers
The following have yet to be negotiated (no dates set yet for negotiations to resume)

Caretakers and Cleaners

Groundstaff
Payout dates : The Ministry payroll have indicated that we can expect the following:
PP 1625 – Pay day 12 March - ACE increases will be paid on this date.

PP 1626 – Pay day 26 March - Secondary Principals, Primary Teachers and Primary
Principals, Area Teachers and Area Principals will be paid on this date (provided the
CAs are ratified).
This includes the one off payments.
PP 1703 – Pay day 7 May - S upport Staff CA and Kaiarahi i te ReoCA’s will be paid on this date.
What about non members?: The Ministry will be promulgating new IEA;s as settlements are ratified, according to the outcome of those settlements. This will determine when boards can apply the new agreements through a revise IEA to non members. New employees (whether members or non members) must be employed under the new terms of the relevant collective (see our website for appointment templates).
Teacher Registration : The Education Act requires boards to only employ registered teachers (this includes the principal). It’s the teacher’s responsibility to get the registration but the employers to check that they have it. The Teachers Council have indicated they will be taking a firmer approach in the future where this has not been complied with possible prosecution of boards where this is breached.
Limited Authority to Teach (LAT): The Teachers Council revised the policy on
LAT’s in September 2007 - http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/policy/latpolicy.stm
.
This lays out clear requirements and reasons why untrained teachers can be employed and the nature of that employment.
The Good Character and Fit to be a Teacher Policy: Was also revised and was effective from November 2007 see - http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/policy/goodcharacter2007.stm
.
KiwiSaver and Retirement Savings: You will have received advice from us prior to
Christmas that government has agreed to fund the employer contributions for board

of trustees in line with the present arrangements for other retirement savings schemes in the sector.
It is expected that over the next few months further changes may be made to the present TRSS and SSRSS schemes as these are likely to no longer be open to new members and auto enrolment to KiwiSaver may be required. Changes are being sought to the IRD legislation to avoid unnecessary administrative compliance requirements on boards.
Further information will be coming out over the next few months on this as we work through the implications with the Ministry and unions.
Resourcing Handbook: You should have now received the revised new handbook for the Ministry. Due to some of the settlements of the collective agreements not being ratified until recent weeks there may be some further changes to take into account as part of these settlements (particularly primary) – we will update you later on what to look out for.
Minimum Wage : In most cases those employed in schools will be covered by an applicable CA or linked IEA (whether permanent, temporary or casual) – this is determined by the type of work they undertake (i.e. cleaning, ground maintenance) and you must pay in accordance with that collective (even if they are employed under work schemes). But when they are not covered by a particular collective then the
Minimum Wage Act applies, which means employees aged 16 years or more must be paid the statutory minimum wage.
From 1 April 2008, there will be changes to minimum wage laws . There will no longer be a minimum wage for youth, except for new entrants. From 1 April 2008, the minimum wage for employees aged 16 years and over will rise to $12.00 an hour before tax.
Banking Staffing: Time period for balancing for 2007: A notice was included in the recent Principals View section of the Gazette on this process and the updated rate for recovery.
Staffing Entitlements for year one and two teachers : Is your school receiving staffing entitlements for all your eligible year one and two teachers? Remember, the

sooner you apply for these beginning teacher time allowances, the sooner they will appear on your staffing entitlement notice and the easier it will be to manage your banking staffing.
Payroll issues and Reference Group : A number of issues arose at the start of this year which caused some frustrations to principals, which have hopefully now all been resolved. The Ministry have indicated that they will be reinstituting the Payroll
Reference Group in March and this will include sector representatives.
Update on Implementation of NZIFRS for 2007 School Financial Statements
All schools are required to prepare their 2007 financial statements in line with New
Zealand International Financial Reporting Standards. KiwiParkSchool model financial statements and other guidance notes are available on the Ministry of
Education website (search using “model financial accounts” on www.minedu.govt.nz
). A new guidance document has recently been posted on the
Ministry website with the model accounts - “ NZIFRS Questions and Answers ”. That document is updated regularly (the ‘last updated’ date is at the top of the first page).
One issue that has been resolved for 2007 financial statements is that schools are not required to accrue for any employee sick leave at 31 st December 2007, but they do need to include a disclosure note by adding a statement like the shaded sentence below:
Statement of significant accounting policies n) Employee Entitlements - Salary Accruals
Salary accruals mainly reflect annual leave owing to teachers and ancillary staff and are recognised in respect of employees' services to balance date and are measured at the amounts expected to be paid when the liabilities are settled. There is a corresponding teachers’ salaries grant receivable from the
Ministry to fund the liability.
Sick leave is accumulated by teaching staff within a school’s staffing entitlement but the majority of their leave taken is grant funded by the Ministry of Education, and therefore has not been accrued. There is a potential liability

for sick leave of staf f outside a school’s staffing entitlement , but that has not been possible to quantify that for inclusion within salary accruals at balance date.