Union takes legal action against Sydney Water

After alleging that workers have not been paid correctly for more than two months due to a US-style payroll system, the Australian Services Union (ASU) has now filed for industrial action in the Fair Work Commission.

According to the union, Sydney Water management has not addressed deficiencies in the system that have allegedly affected hundreds of employees financially and mentally.

The $38 million payroll system in question, Dayforce, was implemented in early July despite alleged warnings from the union that it was not capable of delivering the required service to over 4,000 employees.

The union claimed that hundreds of workers have been shortchanged, some by thousands of dollars, and that management has not been able to guarantee full wages by the next pay run.

The ASU first sought urgent intervention from the Fair Work Commission between late July and early August.

In a letter to the ASU on 20 August, Darren Cleary, managing director of Sydney Water, said: “We continue to evaluate the performance of Dayforce, and it remains the lower risk, least disruptive solution compared with reverting back to the previous system, Aurion.

“However, we fully recognise there are improvements to the system that need to be made, and that it will take some time for our workforce to be comfortable and trust that the system is performing as it should. We are committed to working to rebuild the trust in our workforce.”

“In the coming weeks, I will be initiating an independent review into the implementation of Dayforce and what has occurred. The purpose of this is to learn from the experience to avoid this happening again, and to identify opportunities for improvement.”

In an ASU media release dated 27 August, ASU NSW and ACT secretary Angus McFarland said: “This payroll debacle has escalated to become a workplace health and safety issue, with many workers reporting stress that is impacting their families and their own mental health.”

“Every pay cycle is a lucky dip for workers. It’s completely unacceptable from a large publicly owned corporation.”

In a statement provided to HR Leader, Sydney Water said: “Sydney Water recognises the distress and frustration caused following the implementation of Dayforce, our new payroll and workforce management system. We sincerely apologise to affected employees and recognise the need to resolve this as soon as possible.

“As with many large-scale technology transitions, challenges have emerged as the system has been embedded. We are working directly with those employees who are still experiencing difficulties to resolve them as a matter of urgency.

“In recognising the impact of this issue, several steps have been introduced to minimise disruption to pay and entitlements, including changes that enable payroll corrections to be made through out-of-cycle payments, rather than waiting for the next fortnightly pay cycle. We have also strengthened oversight and escalation processes to help resolve outstanding matters more quickly.

“Sydney Water is supporting affected employees through a range of measures, including access to financial hardship assistance and confidential counselling and wellbeing support.

“We understand why employees and union representatives have raised the possibility of returning to the previous payroll system. However, current assessments indicate a rollback would likely take five to six months and require a significant recovery and transition program. Our focus remains on resolving outstanding issues and supporting affected employees, rather than undertaking another major system change.

“We are committed to working constructively with employees and unions to improve payroll performance, address outstanding concerns and restore confidence in the system.”

In response, the ASU said: “We have been meeting on an ongoing basis with some of your staff since the beginning of this debacle, in a genuine attempt to resolve issues for our members.”

“They told us we did not understand the complexities of Dayforce and made clear there was no point in further discussion – they were the experts and would resolve any minor issues as and when they arose.”

“Many of those issues continue.”

“Please do the decent thing. Accept that Dayforce is a failure. Reinstate Aurion immediately. Pay our members.”

The ASU appeared before the Industrial Relations Commission on 27 August and also reported underpayments and safety concerns to the Fair Work Ombudsman. Further, the union wrote to the Premier, Treasurer, and ministers for water and industrial relations to stand down Sydney Water executive leadership without pay until the payroll system is operational.

ASU delegates voted unanimously in favour of taking protected industrial action, with a member ballot opening yesterday (1 September).

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