In one of the largest pay hitches of its kind in the recent years, the Queensland government has been forced to apologize for shortchanging thousands of doctors and nurses. Due to a recent new system of pay there has been an error in payment with several complaints from the injured parties. With the Easter break round the corner many are frazzled with the error.
Health Minister Paul Lucas has advised those responsible to immediately correct the situation and has also personally apologized for the mistake. And he has also promised anyone out of pocket from bank or dishonour fees will be reimbursed.
Mr Lucas said, "People's pay is their money, not Queensland Health's, and that is why it must be sorted out immediately…This is part of going to a new pay system that will be better for everybody in the longer term but I apologize for any errors in their transition."
This new system of pay according to him involves 140,000 manual adjustments reflecting roster changes or casual timesheets to be entered in the system. The problem was identified last Wednesday but is still not fixed after a week according to many.
The staff handing out pay, Mr. Lucas assured will work over the Easter break to correct the hitch.
Worse still it is anticipated that the same issues will crop up in the next pay cycle."I can't guarantee there won't be a few glitches in the next pay run but we're doing everything we can to help those affected," said deputy director general of corporate services Michael Kalimnios.