Forgotten Voice

I was Payroll Supervisor for a while in the 1960s and at that time there were about 240 people paid weekly in cash, the other 560 or so being paid monthly by an early version of Bank transfer.  A security firm delivered the cash to Hursley each week and our insurers required the pay packets whilst on site to be split between the two strong rooms in the house.

In order to improve efficiency and increase security I proposed a combination of the two payrolls and to invite the cash paid people to be paid by Bank transfer.  To avoid the weekly paid people having to exist a month on their final weekly pay a fortnightly pay period was suggested. This would reduce the number of payroll runs per year from 64 (52 + 12) to 26. Moving away from being paid cash would be optional but by the time I left payroll there were only about 10 people still being paid that way. One or two senior managers were not happy about being paid less than monthly and felt it was beneath their dignity. However, Ken Hewitt-Symonds, the then Financial Controller was a down to earth chap without any airs and graces, and the change was introduced. The fortnightly pay period continued until head office at North Harbour took over payroll and changed it to a monthly pay period.