QNU negotiating a new approach to payroll disaster

Published: 15 August 2011

The QNU, health unions and Queensland Health are negotiating a new approach to the payroll disaster.

On 1 August a dispute conference was held in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) to revise the Heads of Agreement package that had been conditionally endorsed by QNU Annual Conference delegates in July 2011.

All unions, including the QNU, expressed concern about point five of the draft package, which outlined strategies to deal with the generation and recovery of overpayments.

Despite Queensland Health initially asserting that the Heads of Agreement was a ‘take it or leave it’ package, the QNU is hopeful Queensland Health will be willing to remove some contentious points from the final agreement under the direction of the QIRC.

In particular, the QNU and other health unions are seeking to have unacceptable references in point five of the draft agreement removed. Implementation of this contentious point would see new pay adjustment arrangements introduced which give Queensland Health the ability to automatically recover overpayments.

The QNU met again in the QIRC on 5 August, and at the time of printing another conference to work through the agreement had been scheduled for 16 August.

Key elements of the draft agreement include:

1. A moratorium on the recovery of previously notified overpayments (already implemented). To allow employees to work through disputed claims and underpayments over a period of time without the need to worry about having to pay back money in the interim (unless, that is, employees choose to pay back the alleged overpayment).
2. A change of focus from overpayments to improving how underpayments are handled. Including better reconciliation of underpayments and performing case management at the payroll hub level. Service standards will outline timeframes for the resolution of underpayments.
3. The appointment of an independent and external Workplace Ombudsman. To rectify ongoing pay problems by mediating between Queensland Health and staff, and to resolve staff complaints about Queensland Health’s process and response. This will be overseen by the independent workplace umpire, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. The QNU is seeking to ensure the Ombudsman’s role in resolving disputed pay matters between Queensland Health and employees is more detailed in the final draft of the agreement.
4. Increased resourcing for NUMs and Line Managers. To enable them to be able to interact with the pay system, which is currently occurring at the expense of time spent on core duties. The government has acknowledged "the complexities and challenges associated with managing payroll issues".
5. New pay adjustment arrangements and a pilot of new pay cycle arrangements. Including trialling shifting the cut-off for lodgement of adjustments at a small number of sites – which must be agreed to by members, and processing adjustments from prior roster periods when generating the pay with a cap on the recovery amount before an overpayment is generated. This point remains contentious and is still under active negotiation before the QIRC.

In the meantime, the moratorium on the collection of overpayments will remain in place.

Staff will have until 1 October to notify Queensland Health of previous underpayments. This period may be extended in exceptional circumstances, such as where an employee has been on long term leave.

Do not agree to pay back any overpayment to Queensland Health unless, of course, you would prefer to pay back the overpayment. If you do wish to pay back an overpayment during the period of the moratorium, please be totally sure that the amount of money Queensland Health says you owe is correct and also that you receive a receipt or other acknowledgement that you have made the repayment.

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