Workers at a major steel plant under administration have been underpaid as hundreds prepare to leave after accepting redundancies.
Whyalla Steelworks' administrators KordaMentha say they are working to resolve "payroll challenges" as the first round of redundancies gets under way at the plant in South Australia.
About 250 people have reportedly accepted redundancies and will finish up from Friday after more than 500 jobs were lost following the decision to permanently close the Whyalla site's ageing blast furnace.
KordaMentha has been operating the plant since the SA government forced it into administration in early 2025 due to the previous owner's growing debts.
It revealed on Friday its transition to using a third party payroll service had led to a number of underpayments including unpaid super.
While the superannuation gaps had been paid, the company said it was conducting off-cycle pay runs to impacted workers.
"While the transition has presented a number of payroll challenges, we are working closely with the provider and within the business to resolve all identified issues as quickly as possible," KordaMentha said.
"We acknowledge the impact these issues have had on employees and apologise for the confusion this has caused."
The SA and federal governments have provided support to keep the site running since it entered administration in 2025 with a $2.4 billion support package.
The site's blast furnace facility first commissioned in the 1960s had been offline since April and was permanently shut down in September when attempts to revive it were abandoned.
Located in the Eyre Peninsula, the Whyalla site is one of two Australian primary steelworks and the only local manufacturer of long products, including hot rolled structural steel sections and rail.
It's served as the city's main source of employment and was responsible for 75 per cent of structural steel production in Australia as of 2024.
Negotiations are ongoing to find a new owner for the site, with the final two bidders Matt Latimore's M Resources and India's third-largest steelmaker Jindal Steel.
The sale is expected to be finalised by year's end.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas had previously insisted the closure of the blast furnace would not affect the sale, given new buyers would have intended to turn it off.
"Ideally, that closure would have happened later ... but alas, that wasn't able to be achieved," he said.