Two UK-based umbrella companies – Unified Payroll and Giant Pay – have reported being hit by security issues which have left contractors without pay.
Giant Pay said last week that it had taken its systems offline as a result of “suspicious activity” detected on its network on September 22. The company said that it would seek to ensure contractors were paid on September 24, but its systems were reported as still being offline as of the morning of September 27.
In last week’s statement, Giant Pay said: “Upon detection of suspicious activity on our network on 22nd September 2021, we immediately assembled a response team including IT data experts and specialist lawyers, and we are currently working with the highest priority to resolve this issue.”
“As part of the investigation and as a measure of caution, we have proactively taken our systems offline and suspended all services temporarily.” It also confirmed it had contacted regulatory authorities and assured contractors they would get paid.”
Several contractors that work through Giant Pay have taken to social media to report that they haven’t been paid wages, aren’t able to log in to their online portals and have not received responses to phone calls or emails while the company’s systems have been down.
In an update on September 27, the company said that it was “on track to get all our systems back this morning” and that it was working to hard to get its umbrella services operational.
Unified Payroll, meanwhile, said this week that it had “experienced some severe issues with our payroll system on the 16th and 17th September which has resulted in a security issue with our bank account. We have been unable to remit any payments to any workers for these payrolls.”
The company said it was working with bankers “to reach a quick resolution” and that it would “continue to email affected workers with an update.”
