Government has come under fire from enumerators collecting data for the census who have still not been paid for their training sessions.

One enumerator, who did not wish to be named, said she was very disappointed with the organisation of the census, which is suffering a shortfall of volunteers and a backlog of work, resulting in the deadline being put back a month.

She said: "We were told we would be paid for our training by June 13, but we have now been told they are having problems.

"It is $300 for training I did in April, and I think it should have been paid by now.

"I imagine everybody who put themselves forward to be an enumerator did so because they needed the money for something.

"It is wrong of them to turn around and say simply that they are unable to pay us for the training for a while. What kind of organisation has gone into it? "It is no wonder they are having difficulties recruiting people to collect the information. This is the first time I have done it and it will certainly be the last.'' The enumerators were told they would be paid for their training sessions last week, with payment for actually collecting the data following after they have completed their districts.

But now with the training money arriving late, the workers are also concerned about their overall payment for the work.

The woman also said that many people who put themselves forward for the temporary work, dropped out during the training sessions because they were afraid of the situations they would come up against.

She added: "They tell you it's difficult and that you will probably come up against all sorts of problems, but it is actually much easier than they claim.

"I think a lot of people were frightened off during the training sessions, which has now left them short of people.

"I am feeling very discouraged at the moment, and am finding it very difficult to carry on. I'm sure other people are the same. If you feel like that it will take longer to finish.

"What's the point if we don't even get paid when we should?'' Census superintendent Janet Smith Bradshaw admitted there had been a failing to pay the enumerators for their training sessions on time because it had taken so long to process the cheques in the usual way demanded by Government.

She said each worker had a vendor number which had to be processed and it was proving difficult to identify their numbers, creating a delay in being paid.

However, she said she had now been given the go-ahead to pay the workers, regardless of whether or not their vendor numbers were found and she said she hoped they would receive their cash soon.

As for the content of the training sessions, she said enumerators were trained to deal with very difficult situations to enable them to be prepared for any eventuality.

Mrs. Smith Bradshaw added: "We are not exactly happy with the situation. We are receiving lots of calls from people who want their money. We apologise for that.

"As for the numbers being down because of the training sessions, it has nothing to do with that. We did not have enough applicants at the beginning, we needed more people before the first training session was held.''