The Western Trust did not comment on how many here the payment issue affected.
DELAYS in payments by the Western Trust, have caused ‘major problems’ for staff affected in the county.
The Western Trust employs 1,811 in the Fermanagh area, but the Trust did not comment on how many here the payment issue affected.
The underpayments followed the centralisation of the payroll system for the Western Trust and other trusts to the Belfast-based, Business Services Organisation (BSO). Staff have not been receiving claims for overtime, travel claims and allowances.
And, Jill Weir, the Fermanagh and Omagh branch secretary of Unison, said that she has had a number of complaints from staff.
She said that issues surround staff not being paid correctly, issues over tax codes and staff who hold two contracts feeling confusion over how calculations are worked out.
“There have also been major problems for staff who are not getting their travelling allowance,” Ms Weir explained.
“The biggest difficulty of all is actually trying to get your phone call answered when you do have a problem, I believe there is no sequence to calls to this new department and some people have tried for days to get calls answered.
“People have very little, in fact probably no faith in this new service that has been forced upon them, there was no trial period to make sure this system even worked.”
Ms Weir also described the situation as ‘very stressful’.
“It’s at a time when staff, who have not had any proper pay settlements for a number of years, are basically living from month to month, and cannot afford to live with these mistakes in these hard times.”
A spokesman for the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) said: “HRPTS is the new Human Resource, Payroll, Travel and Subsistence system for Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.
“We are aware that a number of staff have not been paid some of their enhancements this month.
“As an employer we are very concerned about this and on behalf of our employees are working closely with the Business Services Organisation (BSO) staff who are responsible for the payroll to resolve issues and ensure that all affected staff receive their pay entitlements as quickly as possible.”
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