Surrey County Council has apologised after a problem with their new £30m payroll system left staff out of pocket.
The payroll system was paying employees the wrong wages, which resulted in some staff missing mortgage and rent payments, according to Surrey County Council Trade Unions (SCCTU).
A council spokesperson acknowledged that the installation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system last summer resulted in ‘some issues relating to payroll’.
An SCCTU spokesperson said: ‘These errors include large overpayments and underpayments, which have had dire reverberations for the staff in question.’
‘This includes employees being unable to make payments on their mortgage, rent, cars, and utilities.’
The council has put in place a number of workarounds and extra resource to address the issue, and there is now a dedicated technical team working to resolve ‘underlying issues’.
The council spokesperson said: ‘Some level of disruption was expected throughout such a fundamental transition to a new system, but we are sorry for any inconvenience to employees and schools adversely affected; our primary focus has always been the welfare of our staff as we resolve any errors, and we will continue to work with them throughout this process.’
