Teachers were late in getting paid in October, almost six weeks after a cyberattack took down Bermuda’s government IT systems.

The delay came as questions remained unanswered about the massive hack in September, which led to passport and work permit processing and customs bottlenecks, and as the effects of the outage continued to ripple through the economy.

On Monday, the Government said it would take up to five months to get a new Bermudian passport, in part because of the application backlog after the dramatic systems failure.

One teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, said that numerous colleagues had not been paid at the usual time, leaving them struggling to make ends meet.

The Government confirmed that some payments did not go out at the usual time last month. It added that the payments, which have now been processed, were still paid within the legally mandated time frame for full-time teachers, which calls for settlement of salaries by the end of each calendar month.

“Normally, on any given month, we would get our compensation slips for the current month a day or two before the second to last day of the month, and we would get paid by noon,” the teacher said.

“I’ve been in teaching for several years, and it ran like clockwork.”

The teacher received a pay slip on Monday evening and was paid yesterday, the last day of the month.

The teacher added: “I do know of two teachers who didn’t get paid at all last month.

“We have teachers who are allocated subs and get paid week to week. I don’t know if they have been paid yet since the school year started.

“Some of this predates the hack. There is no reason if they can pay us in September — even an estimated pay, post hack — we shouldn’t be getting paid in October.

“They did not communicate this. There was no e-mail to explain why we didn’t get a pay slip when we would normally get one. It caused confusion and frustration. There is a lack of professionalism and being organised.

“Our union reps are fully aware of what’s going on.

“I think it is ridiculous in this day and age. They should have been better prepared for the cyberattack.”

A government spokeswoman said on Monday evening: “For clarity, there is no delay in payroll. October pay advices have not been disbursed to any public officers, including teachers.

“As per the terms of all public officers’ contracts, public officers’ salaries are scheduled to be paid at the conclusion of each month.

“This means that everyone, including teachers, will receive their pay at the end of this month.

“Under normal circumstances, the compensation and benefits department typically processes payroll a few days in advance of month end.

“However, due to the unusual situation this month, wherein two monthly payrolls had to be processed in our system, it is intended payments will be made on the regular scheduled payment dates.”

The spokeswoman said that the payment date for substitute teachers was on October 6, adding: “Due to personal banking issues, there were some substitutes paid after the sixth.”

Some government employees have received only a portion of their weekly wages as a result of the cyberattack.

Staff paid weekly continued to receive their wages after the breach of IT systems on September 20 — but some were underpaid or overpaid for four consecutive weeks because their salaries were calculated using historical bank records.

To claw back the overpayments, the Government began withholding wage payments until the money was returned.

Last month, the Bermuda Union of Teachers renewed calls for an overhaul of the leadership at the Department of Education, claiming teachers were enduring “financial disruption” as a result of delayed payment and non-payment of wages.

Dante Cooper, the general secretary of the BUT, told The Royal Gazette at the time: “There is absolutely no excuse for employees of a Bermuda government department to go without pay for several months.

“No excuse for any Bermudian employer to withhold pay that is owed to the point that an employee has their power turned off because they were not able to pay Belco in time.

“No excuse for employees becoming delinquent in their rent payments due to money that they have worked for and earned months ago not being paid to them. This is entirely un-Bermudian, and it is, frankly, embarrassing.

“Yet it continues to happen, with no remorse, no alternative support and with an air of ‘You’re lucky to even have a job’ attached — it’s not acceptable.”

UPDATE: This article was amended to include that, unlike full-time teachers, substitute teachers were due to be paid on the sixth of October and that some were still not paid on time.