ROYAL Bank of Scotland has just paid 100 temporary staff to do nothing for three weeks after it misjudged the volume of complaints arising from its summer IT problems.

The bank asked outsourcing specialist Capita to provide an army of untrained complaints handlers last month, to start immediately and work until the end of 2012.

But the work-hungry recruits, on £440 a week, were paid off last week after a reportedly chaotic fortnight at RBS in Edinburgh.

One temporary employee, based in Glasgow, told The Herald that interviewing had been rushed and nine or 10 people at a time had been hired in an Edinburgh hotel because of the urgency, then the start was twice postponed, before being activated on October 1 as a contract lasting until December 28.

"We were supposed to be based at RBS at South Gyle, but it was changed to training at a hotel for two days on security, and you could tell it was last-minute.

"Then the venue was changed to St Andrew Square, and we were all finally logged in, with the same password, but the team leaders were all on day off and they were having to find us things to do because they had no idea what was happening."

Day four saw the staff sent home early and told to report the following Monday, which on the Friday afternoon was changed to the following Wednesday, it is claimed.

The worker said: "Then on the Tuesday night they said there was a security issue and not to come in till Friday. But on the Thursday night, we were told to attend a meeting on the following Tuesday – when they said the contact had been pulled due to RBS getting their forecasts wrong."

The bemused recruits were paid an extra week as notice, but the employee added: "I had spent £377 on a monthly rail pass and £120 on childminding, and given up a job working in a friend's business."

Capita said it was looking into the employee's concerns.

RBS said it already had complaints handling facilities in Manchester and Belfast, but wanted to ensure there was “no resource issue” when dealing with dissatisfied customers.

A spokesman said:  “It transpired that they weren’t going to be required, which was unfortunate, but it is more important that we get it right for customers.”