HR professionals have rejected calls for employers to pay lower-paid workers weekly during the economic crisis.



Workplace commentator and author Richard Donkin last week suggested that more employers should look into providing alternative pay schedules.



Speaking after an Axa roundtable discussion on employee financial wellbeing, Donkin told Personnel Today: "Now that we've gone on to more automated systems, companies should think again about the option for a weekly pay cheque for those who wanted it. It could be good for employers in helping employees manage their financial affairs."



A spokesman for trade union Unite welcomed the idea, adding: "If a group of workers in a workplace came to us saying they would prefer to be paid weekly rather than monthly, we'd be behind them."



But Sonia Wolsey-Cooper, HR director at insurance giant AXA, said weekly pay packets would be difficult to set-up and not very cost-effective.



"It would have to be looked at very carefully," she told Personnel Today. "Most people have organised their lives around a monthly cycle, and it would be administratively difficult for many employers to do, because while we'd like to think these systems are very straightforward, often they are not."



Dipa Mistry, HR consultant for consultancy PIFC, said technology had not yet advanced far enough to allow employers to make that switch without adding extra man hours.



"There is only so much a system can do, as it still needs that human intervention to sanity-check figures," she said.