Traffic wardens unpaid two weeks after NCP takeover

TRAFFIC wardens have missed out on pay for two weeks in a shaky start for Camden’s new parking contractors, the New Journal has learned.
Parking giants National Car Parks (NCP) took over ticket patrols in the north of the area from rivals Apcoa at the start of the month.
It followed a fierce contract chase last year which saw the Town Hall dump Apcoa in favour of NCP.
But three weeks into the new deal – worth £7 million to NCP – wardens say they are missing their pay packets.
One attendant, who did not want their name in print, said: “We are due to get paid on the 15th of every month but not everyone got their money on April 15. Either that, or they only got paid some of the money. It’s a disaster. It is confusing because some of the staff transferred from the council and some transferred from Apcoa and there has been problems with the pay. There is one woman who hasn’t been able to get to work because she can’t afford to get in – she hasn’t been paid.” NCP last night (Wednesday) confirmed the pay problem but blamed outgoing Apcoa for not co-operating with them ahead of the April 1 handover.
An NCP spokesman said: “We were not given details of staff who were being transferred in time to set up their payments before starting the contract. As a result, we asked them all to fill in forms with their bank details on day one, so that we could start paying them as quickly as possible.
“Unfortunately this meant there was a short delay for some staff. That was unavoidable because we were not able to get the details in advance of taking over the contract.”
Union bosses said they also believed the pay problem was rooted in the previous contractor’s handling of the transfer.
As details of the difficulties emerged last night (Wednesday), Apcoa were unavailable for comment.