Workers go unpaid after banking glitch hits payroll provider Smartly

Payroll provider Smartly says it is working quickly to resolve an issue that has seen some workers not get paid last Friday. Photo / 123RF

Payroll provider Smartly says it is working as quickly as possible with one of its external banking partners to resolve an issue stopping some of its customers from paying staff.

The Herald understands that as of Tuesday afternoon, some people were still waiting to be paid wages that were due last Friday.

“On Friday, we were informed by one of our external banking partners that they had experienced a series of intermittent connectivity outages that resulted in some bank files not being received, including those of several of our customers,” a Smartly spokesperson told the Herald.

“We immediately escalated this issue for urgent investigation and our team has been working closely with the external banking partner to resolve the matter. This includes re-processing the recovered missing files and carefully re-checking each impacted pay to avoid further delays for customers.”

A person who contacted the Herald on the condition of anonymity said their partner’s fortnightly wages, due last Friday, still hadn’t been paid as of this morning.

As a result, the partner’s boss in good faith had given staff an advance to pay some bills, they told the Herald.

A Smartly spokesperson said: “We recognise that this is a significant issue for a few of our customers and apologise for any inconvenience caused. We are communicating directly with affected customers to keep them updated on our progress and our team is working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

The spokesperson said its payroll service is operating as per usual.

“Only some of our bank files linked to one external banking provider were impacted as a result of the intermittent outage they experienced.”

Staff at NZME, owner of the NZ Herald, were told on Friday that an IT issue with ASB meant salary payments for ASB customers had been delayed, although the issue was resolved within hours.

An ASB spokeswoman told the Herald on Friday night that an issue experienced by some of its customers earlier in the day relating to connectivity and the processing of payments was now resolved.

“All payments are being processed as usual.”

She said while the initial focus had been on resolving the issue as soon as possible the bank would undertake a full review in the coming days to establish the root cause.

“We apologise to our customers and anyone who was impacted and thank you for your patience.”

Smartly did not respond to a query about whether its issues were caused by the ASB glitch.

Smartly provides payroll and people management software to 22,000 small and medium businesses, according to its website.