Superannuation provider UniSuper says it is experiencing a service disruption which began with Google Cloud. one of its third-party cloud providers.
In a statement, UniSuper thanked members for their patience and apologised for this snafu. Google Cloud later said this statement was a joint one from both organisations.
"We are working in partnership with Google Cloud around the clock to have services restored for members as soon as possible," the superannuation firm said.
"We’re not able to confirm a timeline for resolution at this stage, but will keep members informed.
{loadposition sam08}"Google Cloud has confirmed that the disruption is an isolated incident, not the result of a malicious act or cyber-attack, and UniSuper data has not been exposed to unauthorised parties as a result of this issue.
"UniSuper has teams dedicated to assisting members who may be experiencing difficulty."
The Finance Sector Union said the outage was preventing fund members from accessing their own superannuation information; this also meant UniSuper was unable to pay staff accurately or, in some cases, at all.
Finance Sector Union national assistant secretary Nicole McPherson said the outage followed UniSuper’s decision just last week to outsource roles in the Delivery and Information Business Unit.
“This is the very same unit and people who are now working double time to fix this massive problem,” she said.
“Outsourcing has become a major issue at UniSuper and is putting staff and Fund members at enormous risk.
“We can clearly see what happens when we don’t keep vital jobs in house and in Australia, which would minimise the risk of issues like this happening – this debacle reflects the true cost of outsourcing.”
McPherson said of greatest concern was the disgraceful lack of transparency by UniSuper as to the ramifications of the outage.
“UniSuper has so far provided very little information about the true extent and impact of this outage,” she said.
“Over 600,000 fund members have not received any information about what this outage means for them, nor have they even been told it’s happened.
“In times of crisis, staff and fund members deserve honesty and answers yet no one seems to know what’s going on.
“It’s outrageous that at a time like this all UniSuper is worried about is its public image.”
The FSU said it had written to UniSuper chief executive Officer Peter Chun calling for an urgent briefing on the impacts of the outage.
After this statement was issued, the FSU said UniSuper had since communicated news of the outage to members, but provided neither a timeframe for a resolution nor any genuine answers as to its impacts.
Google Cloud has made no public statement about the issues at UniSuper.
A Google Cloud spokesperson said: "We are partnering closely with UniSuper to find a resolution as soon as possible and sincerely regret any inconvenience this situation has caused.
"We can confirm this is an isolated incident and not the result of malicious activity. UniSuper's data has not been exposed to unauthorised parties outside the organisation as a result of this issue."