Payroll system changes blamed for delay in payments

A good number of employees at the Foundation for Social Welfare Services are still waiting for their salaries, amid rising concern that some do not have enough money to pay their bills.

Although the company taking care of the foundation's finances was working around the clock to issue the cheques, affected employees felt that the process was taking too long.

"It is taking too much time to issue individual cheques when some of us do not have money to pay our bills," one employee told The Times.

A number of employees received no salary at all - although many of them did get a pay slip - while others received less than was expected. In fact, some workers only got a few euros deposited into their bank accounts.

The alarm bells went off on Tuesday when the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin announced it had ordered industrial action across Sedqa, Appoġġ, Sapport and adult training centres.

On the same day, the General Workers' Union said its members working in adult training centres had received their salaries following its intervention. This further angered workers at the adult training centres who had not received their pay cheques.

"It makes it look as if everything is resolved when there are still a lot of us who did not receive any money or did not get their full salaries," one adult training centre employee complained.

Expectations were high this month with employees waiting for the June salary revised according to the new collective agreement, arrears and the quarterly bonus.

"Our mind is not on the job but on how we are going to pay for essential items," an adult training centre worker admitted.

Many are concerned that they do not have enough money to pay their monthly mortgage instalments.

UĦM section secretary Josef Vella said that although some inroads were made, the union was still receiving calls from a good number of employees who had not received their salaries.

Answering questions by The Times, the foundation said meetings are being held with individual employees to rectify mistakes by issuing cheques on the spot. It said the necessary measures were being taken to ensure that the workers are given their full salaries, including the government bonus and arrears, by the end of the week.

Asked what led to the problem, a foundation spokesman said that recently the company that takes care of the foundation's financial matters changed its payroll system, a change that was necessary to accommodate the adjustments to the various different scales and measures agreed to in the recently-signed collective agreement.

"These factors contributed to delays in issuing the due salaries to employees," the spokesman said.

The financial company has been asked to explain what led to the problem and measures will be taken to ensure that this will not be repeated.

Workers have been instructed not to answer telephone calls or e-mails. Appoġġ and Sedqa workers were also directed not to carry out home visits and adult training centres employees were told not to collect information for management. Sapport employees were ordered not to attend meetings with the management.

The Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin (UĦM) said in a statement last night that it will order additional industrial action at the Foundation for Social Welfare Services.

Although various attempts were made so that the workers would get the salary due to them on Friday, there are still many who have not got their wages and many others still, who got the wrong payment, the union added.

The workers at the Adult Training Centres have still not received what they are owed, the union said.