THOUSANDS of Queensland Health staffers have been left without pay today.
All 82,000 employees on Queensland Health’s payroll were not paid as scheduled this morning due to a processing error at the Commonwealth Bank.
The State Government agency yesterday transferred its payroll data to the Commonwealth Bank to be distributed as usual.
Queensland Health said the bank “acknowledged receipt of the files, advised … they were being processed, and transferred the money out of Queensland Health’s account for distribution”.
But this morning, the Commonwealth Bank advised that it had “experienced a delay in the overnight processing of the Queensland Health payroll file”.
No employees were paid as scheduled.
A spokesman for the bank said late this morning that it had since processed the file and was distributing the payments.
He said the error was isolated to the Queensland Health file, so other Commonwealth Bank customers “shouldn’t be affected”.
A Queensland Health spokeswoman said most employees would receive their pay today, although those with smaller credit unions may face longer waits, depending on the institutions’ banking systems.
Staff who were charged fees by their respective banks due to the delay were invited to contact the Commonwealth Bank for refunds.
Queensland Health’s spokeswoman did not expect today’s incident to affect the agency’s relationship with the Commonwealth Bank.
In December, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh revealed plans to restructure the agency into two organisations that would focus specifically on delivering either health or corporate services.
Queensland Health suffered a series of embarrassing project failures in recent years, including a glitch in its payroll system that left thousands of staff unpaid.