A PAYROLL "fiasco" has hit teaching staff and carers - with Worcestershire County Council accused of presiding over an embarrassing cock-up after letting a private company run the service.

The roll-out of a new automated payment system has seen almost 150 workers underpaid, hundreds more potentially implicated in serious data breaches and schools facing threats from cleaning and catering companies to withdraw their services.

Calls are now growing to levy a serious fine on the company behind the "chaos", with council chiefs announcing that an independent investigation will take place into the scale of the problems.

In 2015 a firm called Liberata was handed an unprecedented seven-year deal to run the payroll function, taking up space on the third floor of County Hall.

But in April it launched a system called 'Mercury', with 16,000 council workers, including people in schools, transferred away from the old paper-based method.

Schools have been hit by a raft of disasters with scores of staff underpaid by as much as £500, others overpaid, no students loans money going out, no overtime money, and private pension funds not being topped-up.

The problem has also afflicted sessional workers employed to work in care homes.

Some catering firms and cleaners have threatened to withdraw their services to schools after not being paid, and at some sites headteachers say half their staff have experienced "major problems".

The council says only 147 people were underpaid in "the first time live payment" and that they have all since been reimbursed, but an independent investigation has been launched into the scale of the problems.

Many more employees are suspected to have had their log-in details mixed up with other workers, resulting in serious data breaches, with staff able to see colleague's salaries, bank details and expenses.

The saga started to develop in April, just as most councillors were away from County Hall electioneering.

But it was debated during a full council meeting on yesterday, with furious politicians calling it "a fiasco", "absolutely shocking", "appalling" and "horrendous".

Lib Dem group leader Cllr Liz Tucker said: "I don't use the word fiasco lightly - schools have used the words 'catastrophe' and 'shambles'.

"The whole thing really is shocking - it is shambolic, if an auditor came in they would be shocked - it is a horror story."

Green Cllr John Raine said he'd attended a forum with school heads last week who were "awash and dismay and frustration" over the new system.

"There was anger and disbelief from headteachers about the disaster that had befallen them," he said.

Tory Cllr Andy Roberts, the cabinet member for children and families, said they had initiated "an independent review" to see what went wrong.

"The review will look at the whole project - clearly there have been challenges, there are things that have happened which might have been done better," he said.

Green Cllr Matthew Jenkins told him "to say it 'might have been done better' is one of the biggest understatements ever", saying a financial penalty for the firm would be "entirely appropriate".

Lib Dem Councillor Fran Oborski added: "This disaster has been done in our name, as a county council."

WE'RE FURIOUS, SAYS SCHOOLS

SCHOOLS have hit out at the cock-up, calling the problems "awful".

Kevern Oliver, chair of governors at the Pinvin Federation of Schools, including St Nicholas C of E and Pinvin First School, said "more than 50 per cent of staff" had experienced "major problems".

"The result of Mercury's failure to properly go 'live' has been several weeks of chaos and stress for many of our staff," he said.

"The headteacher, admin staff and various people have spent the equivalent of three working weeks, both inside and outside working hours, trying to sort things out.

"More than 50 per cent of our staff have experienced major problems with pay such as having none at all, incorrect amounts, no student loan deductions, no logging of overtime, overpayments, and the inability to log on."

Bryn Thomas, headteacher at Wolverley CE Secondary School, said: “The move to a new system is always a challenge and an upheaval, but lessons should be learned from this process."

The Worcester News contacted Unison, which said it has been dealing with over 100 serious pay issues.

A spokesman said: "Members have been contacting us to notify us of a whole raft of disasters.

"We did warn this could happen when it was handed to a private company."

A spokesman for Liberata said: "We would like to sincerely apologise to all staff affected by these errors.

"We have been working extensively with schools and the council to ensure all staff have been supported and given the help they need as well as to ensure that these errors do not re-occur in the next pay run.

"Will be delighted to co-operate fully with the independent review commissioned by the council."

The 147 underpayments were all addressed within 48 hours, although they took up to three working days to clear.

A county council spokesman said: "We are in the process of rolling out new systems for HR and finance to around 16,000 employees, maintained schools and academies.

"The long-awaited new systems will be more efficient and help us to move away from traditional paper-based processes.

"The systems have been live since April - as with any change of this scale there have been some issues.

"We will be reviewing the roll out of new systems and making sure that lessons are learnt."

Liberata employs 2,000 staff across 20 UK offices offering back-up support for public and private sector firms.

At the time of the deal being signed in 2015, the Conservative leadership boasted about it saving taxpayers £2.2 million over the life of the contract.

* Have you been affected by the payroll errors? Email te@worcesternews.co.uk or call 01905 742248.