Social Security went ahead with a plan to implement what's called a "Transitional increment." The management says it did so in consultation with the in-house union representatives. But everything changed on Thursday when the Union head office got involved. General secretary Floyd Neal wrote a letter saying that the workers would accept the increment, but also maintained their right to get their usual bonus at the end of March. Now, the increment was introduced to replace the bonus, so Social Security put everything in reverse, and withdrew the increment. The problem was that all the increments were already in motion - so those had to withdrawn, which we gather requires a lot of paperwork.

So, that meant today the pay for all union, and non-union employees was not ready. Social Security's end of month payday is strictly on the 26th - so workers have their commitments built around that - so the unexpected change has put workers under great stress, we are told by those inside the organization.