Queensland Health pay bungle continues

By Candy Lashkari

Either you get overpaid or you don’t get paid at all, that’s how Queensland Health’s casual staff seem to feel. Last week a payroll system which was blamed for overpaying the Queensland Health Staff was replaced with a new one. The new system cost $40 million to develop, but in the opinion of the staff is worse than the old one. A number of them have not been paid at all.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Health Paul Lucas did apologize to the Queensland Health Staff for the shortfalls and problems faced. “This is a new system and it is designed to provide improved services to staff.” said Lucas, “We had no choice about moving to the new system, as the old one is no longer supported. Each fortnight Queensland Health processes $180 million in wages to more than 74,000 staff and with shift allowances, overtime, and other payments it is very complex.”

“I apologise to anyone inconvenienced. We have publicised help phone numbers, offered to pay any bank charges as a result of missed payments as well as organising cash payments to those who have asked for them. I do ask people affected to make contact with their pay office to iron any further issues out quickly.”said Paul Lucas.

Queensland Public Sector Union area organiser Ron Fossen said “It’s still going on, Queensland Health implemented a new pay system that has disadvantaged some of their workers, some of these workers are also the ones who input into the payroll system.It is not the workers fault, it is Queensland Health’s problem. The Minister (Paul Lucas) said last week that they would work over the weekend to rectify the problem but it is still a problem.”

In response to the situation Director-General of Queensland Health, Mick Reid said on ABC Radio, “Through the Easter process we immediately rectified those as they came to our attention. We paid a number of staff over the Easter break, Those who have been identified in this payroll run we will again rectify."

What further angered the members of the Queensland Health Staff was an email sent by the Royal Brisbane Hospital that pointed them to a list of charities they could approach for food and financial assistance. Mick Reid said, “Whilst I understand the intent of what the Royal Brisbane Hospital did, I think it was unnecessary”

It certainly angered workers who were just looking forward to being paid for the two weeks that they have worked. The worker’s anonymous reactions included statements like “I love working for Queensland Health but I just want to get paid for it.” And “From when I first started work I was always told to check my pay slips and did but it is a bit hard to do if you haven’t got a pay slip.”