Following a series of payroll errors over the past few months, Next employees have been left out of pocket.
Following the botched implementation of a new Oracle payroll system in February, many of the retailer’s employees have been underpaid for several months.
The payroll error could not have come at a worse time for consumers, who are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis and rising food and fuel bills.
In addition to the underpayment, Next has deducted some employee pension contributions without investing them in their retirement plans, according to The Sunday Times.
One employee told the newspaper that some employees had resorted to using food banks or taking vacation days because they couldn’t afford the gas to get to work.
Next was receiving up to 113 calls per day from irate employees complaining about pay issues, but that number has now dropped to an average of 50 per day.
“We have experienced a number of issues with our new payroll system and have been addressing them as a matter of urgency,” a Next spokesperson told the newspaper.
“This is one of the few times Next has outsourced critical software, and we’ve learned a lot about integrating our in-house applications with third-party platforms.” We are well aware of the difficulties that these payroll errors have caused some of our colleagues. We sincerely apologize to everyone who has been affected.”
Following that, he stated that no employees would be out of pocket as a result of the mistakes made.
