There is a growing sense of frustration and despair among professional staff within the Northern Territory public hospital system, specifically about the administration of their payroll system.

The NT Public Service employs just over 18,000 workers, 5600 of whom are employed by the NT Department of Health and Family Services. This is a tiny workforce in comparison to gross numbers in other states but in the NT public servants carry substantial political weight, in part due to historical factors and the need to provide state-level services to a small but geographically and culturally diverse population.

Problems with the NT health system’s administration of its payroll have been slow to emerge but are quickly coming to an ugly and painful head.

Yesterday the Centralian Advocate published a letter, under the heading “ASH payroll blunders” that contained the following assessment of the administration of the payroll at the Alice Springs Hospital: “There is only one reliable thing with payroll: Unreliable.”

For the past few weeks Crikey has been talking to several public health sector professionals employed in the Northern Territory public hospital system.

One health professional, when asked to describe the current condition of the NT public health payroll system, compared it to a patient with a pulmonary embolism. Another told Crikey of a system in which she had no confidence that any of the three payslips that she receives each fortnight represent an accurate record of the hours that she worked in that pay period. She also told of unexplained lump-sum deductions.

And these problems affect both ends of the employment spectrum.

Crikey was told that valued and expensively trained workers are increasingly reluctant to renew their contracts and more inclined to take their skills elsewhere, and that these issues have infected the otherwise good reputation of the NT public health system. These problems can make recruitment of staff more difficult than was necessary, particularly in a tight employment market.

Crikey understands that the NT’s public health administration is spending a cool $1 million per month to recruit staff.

Late last week Nick Calacouras in the NT News reported on the sorry tale of a dozen or so non-professional staff at the Alice Springs Hospital. Calacouras detailed the case of one worker, Kosta Ignatiev, who told him that he hadn’t been paid since he was first engaged in late February. NT health minister Kon Vatskalis’ response denied that his administration of the health ministry.

Perhaps Vatskalis could have taken a tip from his counterpart in Queensland: in late March, during the chaotic $40 million changeover to a new pay system, thousands of Queensland health workers who  were underpaid, or not paid at all, received not one but three apologies from senior bureaucrats and Queensland health minister Paul Lucas.

And while the problem in Queensland arose from the introduction of a new system, NT health workers, all with considerable experience in other states, have told Crikey that the payroll system used by NT Health was at best “antiquated”.

Crikey heard stories remarkably similar to the experiences of the Queensland workers — of health professionals living off maxed-out credit cards, unable to make mortgage, rent and car payments and uncertain about what surprises lay in store at the next pay day. They also said that, with an increasing proportion of NT health professional recruited from overseas on section 457 and similar visas that contain a conditional entitlement to apply for permanent residency after two years of employment, many of those overseas-trained professionals are reluctant to speak out about work-related grievances.

All the health workers who talked to Crikey requested anonymity to protect their jobs, and all spoke positively of their work experiences in the NT. They love their work and, with the NT’s reputation for excessive levels of interpersonal violence, medical staff get direct experience with levels of physical trauma far greater than they would elsewhere in the country.

But they all share an intense disappointment with their employer. They told Crikey that rather than being a temporary “glitch” related to a transfer to a new system, the problems they have with the NT health payroll system are long-standing and systematic.

One indication of the seriousness of these issues are reports that, following a system-wide breakdown in processing of new employees over the 2009 Christmas break, the NT Department of Business and Employment, responsible for government-wide payroll processing, established a call-centre with 13 staff dedicated to receiving and processing public service payroll complaints and inquiries.

Crikey has been told that this call-centre receives upwards of 10,000 complaints a month — not bad for a public sector with  18,247 employees.

The Australian Medical Association’s Paul Bauert confirmed many of the concerns expressed by health professionals. Bauert also noted that the AMA is soon to enter into enterprise bargaining negotiations with the NT Commissioner for Public Employment, Ken Simpson and was reluctant to comment further.

The Australian Nursing Federation’s NT branch secretary Yvonne Falckh told Crikey that she and her members had long been aware of these issues and had worked closely with the NT Department of Health and Families to resolve these issues.

Notwithstanding these efforts by her union, Falckh told Crikey that her members, particularly in central Australia are: “… frustrated by the failure of the NT government to fix problems with a payroll system that just doesn’t work properly,” she said, “The NT government has to replace this system with one that works properly and employ more — and better trained staff to operate it.”

Earlier this week Crikey asked the following questions of the NT minister for health Kon Vatskalis:

1 — How many people are employed by the NT government/OCPE in the following classifications in the public health system:

(a) Nurses — please provide a breakdown by type — i.e. public hospital, remote health, other

(b) Doctors/medical officers — please provide a breakdown by type — i.e. public hospital, remote health, other

2 — Is the minister aware of the long-standing and widespread discontent in relation to the payroll system and related issues among health professionals working in the public health system in the NT and if so, what measures has he taken, or will he take, to address that discontent?

3 — Can the minister confirm that PIPS is the correct acronym, and if so, what it means? If it is not the correct acronym, please advise of the correct acronym or name for this system.

4 — Can the minister confirm that the NT government spends upwards of $1 million dollars per month on the recruitment of doctors and nurses to work in the NT public health system. If this figure is not correct, please provide the correct figure of the monthly — or average monthly — cost of recruitment for these health professionals.

Crikey received the following response from Ursula Raymond, media adviser to Vatskalis: “… Thank you for your inquiry but the Director of Media has asked me to advise you that the Northern Territory Government does not respond to random electronic gossip sites.”

Crikey put the following question to the NT minister for public employment, Chris Burns:

1 — Is the minister aware of the long-standing concerns held by public sector health professionals employed in the NT in relation to the administration of the payroll system? If so, what steps has the minister taken, or will take, to address these concerns?

2 — What steps will the minister take in relation to the loss of reputation of the NT as an employer of choice with prospective employees — particularly in relation to the increased need for recruitment of professional medical staff associated with the federal government’s “Closing the Gap” initiative to address fundamental indigenous health and lifestyle disadvantage?

3 — Can the minister confirm the figure of $1 million as an accurate figure for monthly health professional recruitment costs? If that figure is incorrect, please provide a correct monthly or annualised figure for this recruitment cost?

4 — Can minister Burns confirm that this is correct, and if so, please provide the meaning of that acronym? If it is not correct, please provide the correct acronym and name for this payroll system.

5 — Can minister Burns confirm that the payroll issues discussed above in relation to NT health professional do in fact apply to most, if not all NT Public Service employees? Can the minister confirm that the PIPS (or similar) system is used across the NT Public Service?

6 — Can minister Burns confirm that a call-centre, or similar facility has been established, and when it was established, to receive and process public service employee complaints and queries and the number of staff employed in this facility? Please also confirm the number (by month or by average across a specified period) of calls that this facility receives.

Despite our repeated requests Crikey has at the time of going to press received no response from Burns.

Crikey also approached the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment, Ken Simpson but did not hear back before deadline.