Contractors hired through umbrella company Parasol Group are increasingly concerned about multi-day outages in some IT systems used to process payroll, with some suspecting a security attack as the root cause.
On January 12, Parasol Group’s chief sales officer, Greet Borsens, wrote to its contractor clients confirming “system outages in parts of our group” affecting the MyParasol portal.
“As you may know, our contractors use MyParasol to submit their timesheets, so this also affects our ability to process payroll. We are still able to provide our contractors with phone support and LiveChat for any queries they may have , and in this regard,” the message read. “We are actively reaching out to employees we know have been affected.”
He added that staff were “working tirelessly to restore our systems” so normal services could be provided.
In a further update yesterday, Boysens said he had created “alternative processes to allow our employees to be paid” and provided “guidance on how to contact us”.
“Given that we don’t yet have access to all employment data, we pay out their wage advance, not the full calculation of their wages. We’ll make sure our employees are aware of this.
“We are also currently unable to send invoices to our agency. If you were expecting our invoices earlier in the week, we are seeking your assistance before sending us funds and remittances. To ensure we continue to pay our staff , can you send us a remittance with the following information: worker’s name, working hours and hours, and the amount for each worker.”
In an email, Borsens said Parasol would be grateful if the agency could use the information to make payments, “and we’ll issue an invoice as soon as possible.”
A few months ago in September, Giant Group, an umbrella company with thousands of contractors, confirmed that it was Targeting ‘sophisticated’ cyberattacks Destroyed its IT systems. Several sources close to Parasol expressed concern that the same thing could happen here, although there is currently no evidence to support such suspicions.
“After the cyber attack on Giant a few months ago, just wondering if this is another cyber attack, or a ransomware attack?” said one register“There is no word on the nature of the outage,” said one contractor who uses the umbrella business, which has surged since the IR35 tax reform was introduced last April.
exist offpayroll.org.uk website“If it’s a cyber attack, wouldn’t it be nice to let us know so we can take the necessary steps to protect our personal information?” asked one anonymous poster.
Another said they were told by Parasol that contractors were unlikely to be paid until the affected systems were back up and running. “At least that solves some problems. Still not happy.”
Others said they were also not paid yesterday and today.
We have asked Borsens to comment via email and LinkedIn and to call Parasol Group using their switchboard number and the phone number provided to Parasol Group employee support, although neither figure works. ®
