A payroll malfunction meant some Durham academic staff were not paid in October

Various academic staff at Durham University did not receive their salaries last month.

According to internal emails exclusively shown to The Durham Tab, an error on the payroll system has meant that some staff will only get 75 per cent of their wages.

Those affected having to make themselves known to the University Finance Department, so they can be transferred an “advance payment” of 75 per cent of their monthly salary, with the remaining 25 per cent being reimbursed at the end of November.

The leaked email apologising for the malfunction

If the affected staff do not apply, they will instead receive both October and November’s salary at the end of the month.

Anonymous staff have also informed The Durham Tab that they did not receive such an email, instead only finding out once they had checked their bank accounts.

This is reportedly the second year in a row this has happened.

Jon Bryan, UCU Regional Support Official, told The Durham Tab: "Getting paid the right amount and on time is the least that you should expect once you have carried out what has been asked of you. And if there is a problem with payment, you should tell the person, rather than them finding out via their bank when a direct debit fails. We have alerted the University to this issue and they are investigating the matter. It is one of the concerns that we have about the way in which casual staff are treated which UCU is looking to continue to take up as it is unacceptable that this happens, which we understand also happened last year. Someone needs to learn from their mistakes."

The issue has also been publicised on social media, with concern being raised about staff on hourly contracts, with academic whistle-blower account @DurhamCasuals tweeting: “While most staff got paid as usual for October, Durham Casuals is hearing from a number of people who haven’t. This is not on".

Many Durham academics and SU members have since tweeted their support of those affected and indignation at the university, including the UCU account.

Denise McConnell, interim Chief Financial Officer for Durham University tole The Durham Tab: “We apologise profusely to the 80 valued colleagues who have been impacted by this error in our systems.

“We can confirm that all those affected have now been paid.

“We have reviewed our current processes, and identified the fault in our system which allowed this to come about. We will now be able to ensure a mistake like this will not happen again, as we fully appreciate the difficulties that late payment can cause”.