Arabic version: خلل في الرواتب يؤخر المدفوعات لموظفي مستشفى شمال كانبيرا

A payroll processing issue has led to a delay in wages being paid to North Canberra Hospital staff. Thousands of North Canberra Hospital staff are yet to be paid this fortnight after a payroll processing issue. Some staff at the Belconnen hospital raised concerns on social media, complaining they had received pay slips but no corresponding bank deposits.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith acknowledged the issue and said the government was working to resolve it. She said emergency arrangements would be put in place for anyone in financial hardship. “We are expecting this to be resolved soon and there will be formal communication to affected staff ASAP,” Ms. Stephen-Smith said.

According to ABC News, Maddy Northam from Unions ACT said the error in processing pay to staff would be affecting “thousands of people”. “What happened is, last night an additional character, an additional letter or something, was included in the file that was sent to the bank. That threw out the bank system, and they rejected the file.” She said another payment attempt was sent through, but “the bank viewed it as a duplicate and it was rejected again”.

“So the government has today written to Westpac and they’re going to delete the last two and they’re going to re-send a new one through,” she said. “We’re getting assurances that it should be completed by the end of the day, but there are measures in place, like the minister said, around people who are requiring hardship payments.”

A North Canberra Hospital nurse, who did not want to be identified, told the ABC it was an “anxious” time. “It is a difficult job at times, the burnout rate is really high and one of the things that sort of gets us through is the love of the job, but also the fact that we’re providing for our families,” she said. “So when that pay doesn’t arrive that is really disheartening.” She described it as “incredibly frustrating”. “As we already know, the industry is already sort of underpaid. I’ve got kids, I’ve got quite a high rent to pay, which is due today,” she said. “I’m going to cross my fingers and pray that it hits my bank today.”

Ms Northam said staff could contact Canberra Health Services if they needed assistance financially. “We know, as the union, just how distressing this is, especially during a cost of living crisis,” Ms Northam said. “The government understands the issue and are working quickly to resolve it.”

North Canberra Hospital staff are still waiting to be paid. But she said the government had been contacted late last night and had expected the issue to be resolved earlier this morning. “There has been an email that’s gone out to North Canberra Hospital workers saying that they’re seeking a resolution, but there hasn’t been,” she said. “I would say that perhaps it came a little bit too late, people were already distressed.” Texting into you this morning, putting it up on Facebook, asking the questions that the government probably should’ve already had the answers to.