Pay day agony at council
Graham Ford • Published 3 Feb 2012 09:30
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HUNDREDS of Council employees have been left short changed this month.
Many are now left struggling to pay their post-Christmas bills.
Several employees contacted the Peeblesshire News this week to vent their frustrations.
The blunder happened following a transformation process within the local authority to try to reduce administration costs.
Workers, who are usually paid in the middle of each month, would start getting their wages at the end of the month.
The changes were brought in over Christmas - leaving many with their month's cash to last six weeks.
But worse was to follow this week as a tax blunder has left most of them even more out of pocket.
One worker told us: "They advised a change of salary at the end of November to advise that we'd be now paid on the 31st of every month instead of the 15th and in December they gave us an extra £200 or so, according to salary, to cover the extra until January 31.
"But someone at Scottish Borders Council didn't deduct tax or superannuation on the extra wage and we've been hit with double, after a long wait on our January wage."
They added: "Human Resources were swamped by queries following the rude awakening to the new salary date and messed up wages."
The Peeblesshire News revealed late last year that trainee teachers were left short in the pocket following an internal wages blunder, and this second error has left workers feeling even angrier.
Another worker stated: "We are meant to be getting some of the money back next week, but it really is a crazy situation. This whole thing hasn't been planned properly, they really couldn't have made this change at a worse time.
"Loads of people are already struggling in January as a result of Christmas, and every penny counts."
Employees were sent several emails ahead of the transitions of dates, and the move has been defended by Chief Executive Tracey Logan.
She said: "As part of the Council's transformation programme to reduce administration costs we are harmonising our payroll frequencies and dates.
"The most efficient date for this is the last working day of the month. This pay harmonisation, which was agreed in consultation with trades unions, is a modern and much more efficient and effective way of processing payments.
"Deductions in January's salaries were made correctly in line with current legislation in respect of tax and national insurance. However we do realise that, for some staff, the overall amount that they are taking home has been impacted.
"We are taking steps to address this and have put in place a variety of steps to ensure all staff are well supported during the transition and any impact is minimised."
This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 03 Feb 12
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