Mr Apple pay flaws reviewed

New employees at Mr Apple have suffered incorrect wages. Photo / File

Staff at one of the region's biggest employers have reportedly been walking off the job because of payroll mistakes.

Mr Apple employees told Hawke's Bay Today that missed wages had caused hardship and resulted in some overseas workers leaving.

General manager Andrew van Workum said he said he was not aware of any staff leaving over the issue and there was "never any deliberate attempt to underpay any staff".

The problem was caused by human error and was now resolved. Mr Apple, a division of NZX-listed Scales Corporation, had a permanent staff of about 300 people but for harvest 1400 seasonal staff at its Hawke's Bay and Nelson operations were recruited over a three-week period.

"This obviously creates some pressure on our system to cope with that significant a change," he said.

"Through this process this year we've had some isolated start-up issues and we regret that that is the case. A significant number of these issues relate to incorrect data entry mistakes as well as incorrect data being presented.

"We regret that this has inconvenienced any staff and once the issue was identified we put significant extra resources into rectifying any mistakes.

The system was now "running smoothly".

"We've had a review of the process and are implementing some small but meaningful changes to the process.

"From the company's perspective this was a disappointing situation and we regret if it has inconvenienced any staff."