Government employees found themselves short of cash yesterday after problems with the payroll.

Up to 5,000 staff could not access their wages until the evening because of technical problems.

A statement from the Accountant General's office said: "Please be advised that due to technical problems with the transmission of the electronic payroll files to our local banks, access to payroll funds will be slightly delayed. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

Employees with accounts at Capital G were paid by 10 a.m. and Bank of Bermuda clients by 1 p.m., but some Butterfield Bank account holders did not gain ATM access until midnight.

Despite the late payments, a Bermuda Public Services Union spokesman said: "I don't believe it affected us greatly. No complaints have been received."

The Bermuda Union of Teachers said it had received four calls from concerned members.

A spokesman said: "We had four calls out of 900 teachers who hadn't been paid but there were no real complaints."

However, one secondary teacher, who did not wish to be named, said: "I was angry. It was very inconvenient and I kept thinking about all those people with families overseas who need to send payments.

"Who is responsible for not meeting this deadline? If it is something technical then there should be some type of back-up plan. The worst thing is, they didn't even bother to tell anyone. We only found out this morning with an e-mail."

She said: "A lot of people have automatic drafts at the end of the month so it was a major inconvenience. You write cheques anticipating your payroll going in. The chances are my cheques will probably be returned now.

"I'm sure it's going to pose quite a hardship on some people. It's just ridiculous."

A Government spokesman reassured workers their mortgages would remain unaffected.

"It was just a one-off, an unusual set of circumstances, but the Government has addressed the problem," he said.

"People have called to enquire about their wages but after we've explained the process there haven't been any formal complaints.

"No one's mortgage payments will be affected by this.

"If anyone has a mortgage or other payment coming out on the 30th, it will come out of their account this evening in the bank's run, and the payroll deposit will go into the accounts during this evening's run. Therefore, there would be no payments affected by the delay."

He added: "If anyone went overdrawn today, Butterfield Bank will refund any overdraft fees if they were caused by this transaction. In addition, if someone wanted to pay their mortgage earlier today, they had access to their funds by going into the bank."