COVID-19 and EP

Pay for Relief Teachers During Closures

Early Childhood Teachers

Following clarification of the employers’ wage subsidy from the Minister of Finance yesterday, ep.education are delighted to let you know that we will be applying to Work & Income for the subsidy to pay casual ECE teachers. Subsidies will be used to pay teachers who meet the government criteria at a rate of 100% of usual average wages.

We will be making every effort to continue these payments at 100% for the 12 weeks from Monday 23 March.

How much can you get?

All payments will be made in line with the instructions on Work and Income’s wage subsidy webpage that says employers should:

• Pay at least the full amount of the subsidy to the employee; but

• Where the ordinary wages or salary of an employee named in your application was lawfully below the amount of the subsidy before the impact of COVID-19, pay the employee that amount.

As the hours for our ECE relief staff fluctuate, we will pay the same amount as your average weekly payments over the last 12 months or, or since you started working with ep.education (if this is less than 12 months ago).

Will all ECE educators get the payments?

We are only subsidised to pay out to teachers who:

• Are currently employed with ep.education; and who have

• Worked sometime within the 12 months prior to our application and

• Were expected to continue to work with us over the next 3 months.

When will payment come?

Our application for the subsidy will go into Work and Income on the evening of Monday, 30th March. Within 24 hours of the subsidy being approved by Work and Income, teachers who have met the criteria will be paid into your normal bank account. Current Work & Income approval times are around 4-5 days. Once subsidies are approved, pay will be weekly on a Wednesday, as per prior to center closures.

What about pay for bookings that I worked last week? 

Your pay for any hours you actually worked last week from the 23rd to 27th of March will be made on Wednesday the 1st April as usual.

Action for you by 5pm - Monday 30th March

Before we can submit our application to Work & Income, ep.education are required to have your authorisation. We need you to fill in this online application form by 5pm on Monday the 30th of March so we can submit application that night. Your ep.education consultant will be in touch tomorrow to support you with applying.

If this form is not submitted by this deadline then we will aim to put in an application in for you by the end of the week.

What if I also get other income or have claimed already? 

On ep.education’s application form, please carefully read the privacy statement, especially if you are currently on a benefit.

If you are normally paid for other work as well as teaching through ep.education, then your other employer may also claim the subsidy and pay you 80-100% of the usual wage payments you get from them.

If you have made claim to Work and Income directly, as well as being paid by ep.education, then you MAY at some stage be required by Work and Income to pay some money back.

Pay for Relief Teachers During Closures

Primary & Secondary Schools 

Relief teachers in primary and secondary schools are paid by the MOE (information is available on this website and also from the NZEI). The MOE has announced an "Emergency Payment" for Relief Teachers:

"The emergency payment will be made during the lockdown to the following people:

• All current relief teachers and kairīwhi who are not receiving any automatic wage payments from a state or state integrated school or kura.
• All non-teaching employees and kaimahi whose hours are loaded via timesheet and who are not receiving any automatic wage payments or timesheet wage payments from a state or state integrated school or kura.

These employees and kaimahi must have worked and been paid at least once during the last 4 pay periods, during Term 1 2020 at a school and kura including, wharekura, primary, intermediate, secondary, area, and special schools."

Please note that the Emergency Payment is not intended to compensate for anticipated earnings over the period. The calculation will only average pay periods where you have worked and received pay. That means the period/s where you have not worked, and have therefore not been paid, will not be included in the calculation.

You can find out more information about the emergency payment here.

On Wednesday 1st April, we emailed all primary and secondary relief teachers working through EP the following message:

On 19 March 2020, it was announced that from 11.59PM that night, NZ borders are shut to everyone except NZ citizens and residents, with few exceptions. Since then, all of New Zealand has begun a lockdown period, where everyone except essential workers must stay home. These measures are in place for at least four weeks from Thursday 26th March, and may be extended in order to give NZ the best chance of uniting against COVID-19.

This announcement will affect some teachers who are due to arrive in NZ and begin a teaching role here. Please contact your EP recruiter for an update on your specific situation.

If you arrived in NZ prior to the border closure, please ensure we have contact details for you in New Zealand including where you are staying and a local phone number while in self isolation.

If your journey to New Zealand becomes more complicated as a result of COVID-19, please stay in touch with your EP recruiter or the EP Dream Jobs team.

We ran a webinar on Monday 30th March where we updated overseas teachers (not yet in NZ) who are wanting to teach in NZ on the current situation and answered many of their questions. This webinar was recorded and can be viewed here.

See our Returning Kiwis page for information specific to you.

If you arrived back in NZ after 16 March 2020, please be aware that you are required to self-isolate for 14 days following your arrival into the country. For full information, please see the Ministry of Health guidelines regarding self isolation.

Here are some resources we have collated, relating to the current situation:

• EP + COVID-19 (webinar by EP, aimed at overseas teachers wanting to teach in NZ)
• Teach From Home (resources collected by Google)
• Coronavirus and Early Childhood Education: What you Need to Know and Answers to Questions (NZ ECE specific information)
• COVID-19 Information for NZEI Te Riu Roa Members
• What can people do to protect themselves and others from getting the new coronavirus? (video from World Health Organisation)
• Calm (free resources to help with supporting mental and emotional wellness)
• Mindfulness Resources (more free resources to help with supporting wellness)
• Keeping Anxiety in Check Amidst Uncertainty (podcast from Radio NZ)
• Teaching Online (free webinar)
• What Kids Want to Know About Coronavirus (comic exploring the virus)
• How to Talk to Children About the Coronavirus (article with helpful tips)
• List of Education Companies offering Free Subscriptions (note this is a US website)