Understanding school employment

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Legislation and regulations

A number of legal requirements and Ministry of Education regulations exist for employment. The relevant legislation is contained in these Acts:

Legislation

Education Act 1989 still underpins most education practice, including employment.

State Sector Act 1988 part 7, sections 73–77, Personnel provisions, has relevance.

Employment Relations Act 2000 has many relevant parts – for example, part 9, Personal grievances, sections 102–128.

Ministry of Education regulations

NAG 3 relates to board and management legal responsibilities for personnel and employment matters, industrial policies, and being a good employer.

Employment agreements: collective and individual

Employment agreements are used to confirm the conditions of staff employment. These pages provide links to all school collective and individual agreements:

Collective agreements

Individual employment agreements

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Payroll

Check that your school is using all the staffing it is entitled to. This list will help you to overview payroll elements, and these regular tasks mean that your staff will get paid. The regular arrival of correct pay ensures they can meet their financial commitments. Even a few dollars missed off a payment or, even worse, having to wait a fortnight for pay can result in financial difficulties for people.

• Confirm the staffing levels determined and paid for by the Ministry of Education.

• Confirm who is paid directly by the Ministry of Education from Teachers Salaries (TS).

• Confirm other staffing determined and paid for by the board of trustees.

• Confirm who is paid from the Board Grant (BG).

• Confirm that the full cost of wages and salaries to be paid for from the BG for the year match budget expectations.

• Check the SUE (Staff Usage and Expenditure) reports to see that all your staff have been paid correctly. Their level of pay must fit the conditions of their employment agreement. This includes special allowances, responsibility payments, and any adjustments from a previous pay period.

• Confirm that your school’s banking staffing processes follow the pattern you expect.

• Ensure pay adjustments for the next pay period are made before the 'cut-off' time laid down by your pay authority.

View the Ministry’s payroll management section

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Appointing staff

As an educational leader, you will seek the best appointees for your school. Use processes that ensure new staff members are able and ready to help advance school development.

This list will help you plan the steps in advance that you need to work through for staff appointments.

• Identify what sort of appointment, if any, is possible or should be made. Use curriculum needs, Ministry of Education regulations, confirmed staffing levels, and board of trustees budget limitations to help.

• Know and use the school’s advertising and appointment procedures, and ensure your procedures meet the requirements of the Collective Employment Agreements. Use NZSTA guidelines to assist.

• During the selection and appointment process, carefully check the background and performance of applicants. Start with registration, contact all referees, ask searching questions about capability, and think of and ask about what has not been stated on paper or in an interview. Be very methodical in building a picture of applicants on your short list.

• Know and use the school induction processes to help the new staff member adapt to the changes involved in a new place of employment.

Details of appointment processes and a range of templates can be downloaded from the NZSTA website.

Use Chapter 2 of the Resourcing Handbook to understand and confirm the annual staffing cycles and whether you are in a position to offer a teaching position.

Concurrence

Under the State Sector Act 1988 the State Services Commissioner has delegated the authority to the Secretary for Education to agree (grant “concurrence”) to a board of trustees who wish to provide additional remuneration and other benefits that are in addition to those specified in the collective agreement or promulgated individual employment agreement (IEA) covering that employee.

An agreement between a board of trustees and employee to provide additional remuneration or benefits is not legal or binding without the Secretary’s concurrence.

The policy for principals

The additional remuneration or benefit can only be for the limited purpose of recognising and compensating the principal for the performance of additional duties or responsibilities that are for the benefit of their school and that are outside the scope of the normal duties and responsibilities of a principal.

Reasons usually considered an acceptable basis for the payment of additional remuneration include (but are not restricted to):

Management of, and responsibility for:

• a residential/boarding hostel owned by the board of trustees
• recruitment of large intakes of foreign fee paying students
• a significant initiative that earns extra revenue for the school and is in addition to the principal’s normal role
• school that is considered an exemplar of practice which results in other schools seeking information and advice on the processes undertaken to achieve and maintain the high levels of practice
• implementing a significant change process.

Reasons usually considered an acceptable basis for the payment of additional remuneration include (but are not restricted to):

Providing:

• a performance incentive for the principal
• a recruitment or retention incentive for the principal
• compensation for the duties or responsibilities that already compensated for in the principal’s basic salary
• a personal benefit, such as health insurance, club or gym membership, private use of a board owned vehicle, subsidised housing.

Retrospective concurrence is not granted for past payments for which concurrence has neither been sought nor granted. Only in exceptional cases will concurrence be backdated, however, it will not be backdated to a previous year. The funding for the additional remuneration and the financial liability for it must come from the board of trustees.

When a board can apply for concurrence

Boards can apply for concurrence in two circumstances:

• Where the board has determined that the principal is required to undertake responsibilities which are additional to those normally required of a principal, and has agreed that it wishes to pay additional remuneration.

• Following the settlement (and ratification) of a collective agreement. At this point all remuneration or benefits which are additional to those provided in the collective agreement (or the promulgated IEA) are terminated at the time the new rates in the collective agreement are paid for the first time. New concurrence is required should a board wish to continue to provide additional remuneration or benefit for additional responsibility. For those principals not bound by the collective agreement and who are on an IEA, new concurrence is required at the time the offer of the new IEA occurs.

Applying for concurrence: the process

Board members should first familiarise themselves with the remuneration rates in the collective agreement prior to making a decision on the amount of additional remuneration to provide the principal.

The agreement by the board to seek concurrence to pay the principal additional remuneration must be recorded in the board minutes. The board should also record the additional duties and remuneration (and other relevant terms) in a variation of the principal’s employment agreement, to reflect that it is a legally enforceable term of employment in addition to those terms and conditions provided in the collective agreement or the promulgated IEA.

A letter of application for concurrence must then be sent by the board to the Ministry of Education’s Industrial Relations Unit (PO Box 1666, Wellington).

All applications must include:

• detailed information and/or supporting documents that explain the principal’s additional responsibilities; and
• the specific amount of the additional remuneration or benefit the board is seeking to make; and
• acknowledgement that the board accepts the liability for the remuneration or benefit and has the financial capacity to make the payment without detriment to its other activities; and
• acknowledgement the board is aware of the current applicable remuneration of the principal.

In the case of principals on an IEA that provides for different terms and conditions than the promulgated IEA, the Ministry must also sight the full draft IEA with the proposed amendments and/or additions prior to the signing of the IEA by the board and principal.

A letter will be sent from the Ministry confirming that concurrence has either been granted or declined. No formal offer should be made to the principal before concurrence is granted.

Where concurrence is granted, the board will need to provide a copy of the letter granting concurrence to their payroll service centre when advising the service centre that the payments are to be made.

The additional remuneration which has received concurrence will be paid on a fortnightly basis with the principal’s normal salary.

Concurrence is granted for the current school year only. If a board wishes to continue making the payment it must seek concurrence from the Ministry for a further defined period.

For further information on concurrence boards can contact the Industrial Relations Unit at industrial.relations@minedu.govt.nz

View the Ministry’s education circular on concurrence

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Individual and team performance: teachers

Teacher registration, performance management and appraisal are parts of the New Zealand school scene. They are confirmed as law in the State Sector Act 1988, the Education Act 1989 and its amendments, and the legal requirements of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

You must follow their requirements.

You must be aware of how collective or individual employment agreements regulate some aspects of appraisal and performance. Linked to the legislation are Ministry of Education regulations and requirements.

Increased emphasis on whole staff development has expanded the importance of finding out how teachers are performing, sharing teaching practice, and providing and responding to meaningful teacher development.

This list will help you to review how you approach individual and team performance at your school:

• We have a robust staff appraisal system.

• I can use this appraisal system to understand the qualities of our staff.

• I know and am satisfied with staff development processes at our school.

• I know from regular reviews how staff development is progressing and how to formulate teacher development goals and strategies for the future.

• I know and understand the processes related to dealing with teacher competency issues.

• I am prepared to apply those processes to deal with competency issues.

These sources of information focus on quality teachers, quality teaching, and staff development:

Professional Leaders and Employers – roles in registration

Criteria for registration – NZ Teachers Council

Performance management systems – Ministry of Education documents

A Matter of Performance (Leadership Dilemma)

Enhancing Internal Capacity (PDF 148KB)

Consensus: Tap into a Powerful Decision-making Tool

Does this guide meet your needs? If not, let us know: contact@educationalleaders.govt.nz

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