The PSA is calling on Health NZ to conduct an urgent
review after a widespread failure in its payroll system left
around 4,000 Waikato hospital and health workers without pay
yesterday.
The payroll glitch affected roughly half
the Waikato health workforce. For workers living pay cheque
to pay cheque, the impact was immediate and real. One PSA
member was unable to pay their rent.
“Workers turned
up and did their jobs, caring for patients, keeping
hospitals running, and they deserved to be paid on time. A
payroll failure of this scale is not a minor inconvenience,
it causes real hardship,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National
Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga
Here Tikanga Mahi.
Health NZ has apologised to staff
and said the failure was a result of ‘an error in the
rostering system used to calculate pays’. Staff would be
paid tonight.
“Apologies are not enough; Health NZ
must urgently get to the bottom of what happened here and
make sure it never happens again. What we do know is the
Government’s spending cuts and axing of health workers do
not help.
“This is not an isolated incident,” said
Fitzsimons. “IT failures have become a recurring feature of
our public health system and that is no accident. Just last
week a critical medical imaging system was down for two
hours across Auckland and Northland hospitals delaying
results for clinicians.
“The PSA has repeatedly warned
that cuts to Health New Zealand’s Digital Services
workforce would make IT failures more likely and harder to
fix.
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“Health NZ has shed around 23% of its IT
workforce, more than 500 staff to meet the Government’s
spending cuts. On top of that some 2,800 health workers,
including critical clerical and admin workers, have lost
their jobs.
“Doing this while the system is already
under strain is reckless. Yesterday’s payroll failure is a
direct consequence of running a health system without the
resources it needs,” said Fitzsimons.
The PSA is
calling on Health Minister Simeon Brown and Health NZ to
urgently review the state of the health system’s digital
infrastructure and to halt further cuts to the Digital
Services workforce until a full and independent assessment
of IT risk has been completed.
“Workers and patients
cannot afford for the Government to keep ignoring the
warning signs. It’s time for the Health Minister to act,”
said
Fitzsimons.
