Stop Pay

Policy and Guidelines

There may be circumstances where it is necessary to stop an employee’s pay. A stop pay is a temporary measure which may be entered on an employee's payroll record to avoid a potential overpayment in situations such as:

• when an employee takes an unauthorised absence, and
• immediately after each period of Workers' Compensation leave

A stop pay is not an approved form of leave and must not be used in lieu of recording the appropriate form of authorised leave for an employee.

In all cases, a stop pay should be regarded as a short term solution to avoid a salary overpayment and as soon as possible should be amended to reflect the employee's status either by deleting the stop pay as the employee has returned to work, approving leave or by amending the employee’s record on eduPay from stop pay to absent without leave (AWOL) and taking action to resolve the unauthorised absence. Refer to the Absent Without Leave — Unauthorised Absences topic for more information.

Stopping an employee’s payments in circumstances other than those outlined above should not need to occur, provided appropriate payroll procedures are in place, including the checking of and taking action on certification messages by payroll validators.