Mt Aspiring College caretaker Ronnie Moffat, of Wanaka,
hopes $102 million of holiday pay is not deposited in his
bank account today. The inset is part of his education
services payslip - including Mr Moffat's notes - which
states his 26 days' holiday pay will be paid at an hourly
rate of $658,800. Photo by Mark Price.
Having been underpaid $110 each week since the
introduction of the Novopay payroll system, Mt Aspiring College
caretaker Ronnie Moffat has now learnt he's in line for a
$102,772,800 pay packet.
The balance swung in Mr Moffat's favour when he decided to
take some leave.
He applied for 26 days' holiday pay and when he received his
education services payslip found it showed an hourly rate of
$658,800.
Normally Mr Moffat, who works a six-hour day, is paid $16.09
per hour.
Mr Moffat joked to the Otago Daily Times yesterday
about how he might spend the overpayment but actually hoped
the money did not appear in his bank account today.
''I don't want it to go in, because it will just be a lot of
trouble. But it's totally bizarre.''
The school's executive officer, Helen Hammond, described the
hourly rate on Mr Moffat's payslip yesterday as ''a
nonsense'' and was reasonably confident the new system would
not pay out such a large sum in error.
''There have been some strange things happening in the pays
but I think if it was something as bizarre as that it would
get picked up - hopefully.''
Ms Hammond noted the hourly rate anomaly was not carried over
into the main calculations on the payslip - which show
holiday pay of $0.00.
Her reading of other information on Mr Moffat's payslip led
her to believe he would get his holiday pay but not the huge
amount suggested by the hourly rate figure, and she had not
brought this particular error to the ministry's attention.
''I think all we can do is wait and see what actually comes
through in his pay.''
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education said Mr Moffat
''definitely'' would not be paid that amount.
Some payslips had been inaccurate because of processing
errors and the ministry was ''working hard to ensure these
errors are corrected''.
- Mr Moffatt has checked his bank account today and the
over-payment did not appear.
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