A “LONG-awaited” new payroll system designed to make Worcestershire County Council more efficient has descended into chaos with some Wyre Forest social care and schools staff left underpaid.

The authority and its partner Liberata introduced the new Mercury HR and Finance processes in April and will see 16,000 county, school and academy staff transferred from paper-based systems to automated ones.

But the move has hit serious problems which public sector union Unison branded a “raft of disasters” including more than 150 people not being fully paid and possible breaches in data protection.

They added some of the lowest paid staff had received up to £500 less in last month’s pay packets, resulting in financial hardship for people struggling to pay bills.

A council spokesman described the issues as “teething problems” but added they were working to resolve them as soon as possible. The council refused to comment on how much taxpayer’s money was spent on the new systems and how much the fault would cost.

But in a joint email sent to all schools - leaked to The Shuttle – by Dr Peter Bishop, the council’s Director of Commercial and Change and Liberata managing director Gerwyn Baker described the system transfer as a “challenging task” and admitted “clearly there are things we could have done better.”

They apologised to staff and added an action plan to remedy the situation had been agreed while confirming an independent review would be carried out.

A Unison spokesman said: “It appears all hell has broken loose! Members have been contacting us to notify us of a whole raft of disasters.

“A significant number of employees have been given log-in details which are ineffective, others have been given log-ins which allow them to view other people’s personal data. This potentially places the Mercury system in breach of data protection legislation.

“Other members, many of whom are amongst the Council’s lowest paid workers, are reporting distressing underpayments of salary leading to severe financial hardship.

“Some employees have been underpaid to the tune of £500 causing problems with regular direct debits and household bills.

“One Unison member who telephoned the Liberata helpline said the adviser sounded on the verge of a breakdown.”

Bryn Thomas, head teacher 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 particular process.”

Chris King, CEO of Severn Academies Educational Trust, said: "We are aware of teething problems and continue to work with Liberata to achieve a smooth roll out of the new system across all of our schools."

A spokesman from Worcestershire County Council said: "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 teething problems.

“With our partner Liberata, who we chose to deliver the new system because of their experience in this field, we are working through these issues and resolving them as quickly as we can.

"We have a large support team in place to provide technical support and advice."