Sub teachers' emergency payments may continue until Christmas

Some substitute teachers have not been paid for two months in a row

Emergency interim payments for teachers may have to continue until Christmas after more than 300 substitute staff did not receive their expected wages on time.

There have been problems with substitute teachers' pay for two consecutive months due to problems with an online system.

On Wednesday, it was announced that emergency interim payments would be made to those affected on 25 October.

But a letter to schools suggested it may not be resolved until December.

The letter was sent out late on Wednesday by the Department of Education (DE) and the Education Authority (EA).

The EA previously had to apologise after a number of substitute teachers were not paid on 16 September as expected.

At that time, the EA said it was not possible to provide emergency payments to them and they would have to wait until the next pay day, 18 October, to get their wages.

However, the problems continued when 309 substitute teachers did not receive the money they were entitled to in October.

The NASUWT union said on Wednesday that it had been "inundated" by teachers in "extreme distress" over the missed payments.

Cost-of-living crisis

Some schools and substitute teachers have reported problems with the online Northern Ireland Substitute Teacher Register (NISTR).

It is the system schools use to book and process pay for substitute teachers.

The EA has apologised again for the errors in the NISTR system.

Justin McCamphill from the NASUWT called for a review of the system.

• Some sub teachers not paid for second month running

• Apology as some substitute teachers are not paid

"We do think there needs to be a review into this whole process right back to the tendering of the new system," he told BBC Radio Ulster's The Nolan Show.

"The fact that it has been rushed through during the summer months, that it began late, that schools couldn't even book teachers at the end of August.

"Then to compound it we had the situation around payments.

"We do believe somebody needs to come in and look at the whole instigation of the NISTR system."

'Timely payment'

The letter sent from the DE and the DE to schools on Wednesday said Education Minister Michelle McIlveen had approved the interim payments "particularly in light of the cost of living crisis".

The letter acknowledged "there have been a number of issues recently regarding the implementation of a new NISTR system and the timely payment on temporary teachers".

However it also said some schools had not completed "appropriate approval processes" by the payroll deadline date.

The EA will contact schools where teachers have been working who need an emergency payment.

But in their letter, the EA and DE did not specify how much money was owed to the 309 teachers in total.

They said "further interim emergency payments will be considered up to Christmas as appropriate".

Substitute teachers are due to be paid in mid-November for work done in schools in October.