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Thursday, November 20, 2008, 09:32
Nurses and healthcare assistants working for University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHBristol), which runs the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) have been experiencing problems with their wages for more than a year.
Some have been left several hundred pounds out of pocket, while others have been overpaid for more than 12 months and are concerned they will struggle to pay it back.
Staff have reported shortages from their salaries and the overtime they work for the organisation through the hospital's own agency or bank.
And some staff are now refusing to fill extra shifts because they are worried they will not be paid for it.
As reported in the Evening Post in May, UHBristol staff have reported issues with their pay since August 2007, when a new computerised payroll system was brought in.
Staff have now been told they can only contact the payroll department by email and are not allowed to call or visit the staff who will deal with their queries and are frustrated they cannot sort out the issues immediately.
One registered nurse who works at BRI told the Post her most recent monthly pay packet was about £300 short.
She said: "So many nurses have been affected and are trying to get it sorted out.
"I am one of the lucky ones, a colleague has had her pay down three months on the trot.
"There was one colleague who is 60 but her pay has been short because they had her down as on maternity leave.
"It has got to the point now that staff who would normally work bank to give continuity of care are now refusing to do it because they do not know whether they are going to get paid."
She said there was a report of a healthcare assistant who was paid just £29 for a month's work. An emergency payment was made when her manager stepped in.
Another said she had been overpaid every month since September 2007. She now has to pay back £900 and knows of two other nurses in the same position.
UHBristol said that despite having almost 9,000 staff, queries referred to the payroll department since the email system was brought in in May have dropped from about 250 a week to an average of about 60 a week.
UHBristol spokeswoman Helen Jackson, said: “We have seen a change in the nature of queries we receive, with a decrease in the number of complaints about general pay enquiries and more requests for advice on tax and pensions.
“We endeavour to deal with any issues as soon as they are reported and most queries are resolved within a week.”
She said that advances are raised on occasions when staff are not fully paid and that overpayments are dealt with on a case by case basis and that hospital figures show there has been no adverse effect on the number of bank shifts being filled.
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