The council staff member worked the public holidays January 1 and 2 and said he was not the only one affected. He knew of other people who worked Christmas and Boxing Day as well and had not been paid their full entitlement either.
The man received an email from the council’s payroll department saying it was a company-wide issue.
It was a “considerable amount of money” that people were owed across the organisation, he said.
”People are obviously expecting the overtime to be paid, everybody’s frustrated.”
The man wasn’t given a reason for the pay issues but said he suspected it was caused by the new payroll system the council introduced a month ago.
He said the communication had been “dreadful”.
”We just get automated emails back saying people are on holiday or an email back saying that we’re looking into it, but no definite of we’ll be paid by this date.
”It’s a little bit frustrating, not just for me personally, but for the group that’s worked over the [holiday] period.”
He said he bought something online that arrived, but the money wasn’t in his account, so he had to take it from another source.
The staff member said they were paid fortnightly and if they were paid the money owed in the next pay cycle it would be a month between doing the work and being paid correctly.
Council general manager corporate services Alastair McNeil confirmed there were 93 staff who may not have received overtime, on-call allowances, or additional public holiday entitlements.
There were 30 people who were paid incorrectly for working the public holidays, he said.
It was caused by a technical issue with the new human resource information system that was implemented in November, McNeil said.
”We quickly identified the cause and fixed the problem, so this does not reoccur. All affected employees and their people leaders were personally communicated with on Wednesday.”
Staff from the council’s customer services, spaces and places, venues and events, city waters and transportation departments worked the public holidays, McNeil confirmed.
”Staff across various council functions were working over the break to keep essential services running for the city.”
The council has 1250 employees.
Asked when the affected staff would be paid correctly, McNeil replied: “We are communicating directly with affected staff”.
Local Democracy Reporting has sighted an email from a council payroll employee saying the “missed components” of pay will be paid the in the next pay run.
Council staff were paid on Wednesdayso the next pay cycle is in a fortnight, the anonymous council employee said.
McNeil did not respond directly to the employee’s concerns about communication. .
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
