Payroll errors and take away explained 01-20-15 meeting
In: 911 TCs concerns, CO-911 Site, Detention concerns, Steward concerns
Hello all
Well, we met with the County APEX and HR people yesterday so that they could explain to us how they had made the error which resulted in the over-payment and reclaiming of money from our checks in December last year.
Without boring you all with repeating the rather long and tedious explanation they gave us I'll cut to the bottom line as succinctly as I can, bear with me as its complicated.
When we settled the Contract and received our retro pay in October last year the retro amount included a number of different payments:
- For those on Top Step a cost of living percentage increase of 3.5%
- For those not on Top Step an increase to their current Step level to the 2014 rate plus a 2.5 cola
- For those who had a Step advance prior to October 10th, a retro increase to their previous step, plus a retro amount for their new current step
- For those on Mids and Dog a retro increase in Shift Allowance
- For everyone who works weekends a retro increase on Weekend Allowance
- For everyone a retro payment for Overtime, Holidays, Sick days etc, based on the 2014 step levels
[That last one is in bold and underlined as it will be important in a moment]
So, we all got a retro pay amount in our October checks, which varied depending on our Step level, amount of overtime worked etc
Now, in December we get Stability Pay, which, due to Federal legislation, is classed as a premium increase to our pay and must also be included in our overtime pay rate.
We each got a fix amount of Stability Pay, which varied dependent upon on our years of service, then that amount is divided up by pay weeks and applied to a calculation based on the number of overtime hours we worked each week throughout the year, for all of 2014.
What this essentially does is increase our overtime rate above a standard One and a Half rate, so we get a little extra bonus per hour of overtime. This is calculated at the end of the year based on how much Stability pay you get and retroactively applied to the overtime hours worked that year
Hope you're still with me, as we're getting to where the error occurred - What the APEX system did when it ran the Stability Pay bonus was go to the wrong levels of pay
Instead of using the current 2014 rates it reverted to the old 2013 rates when it paid us the Stability Pay bonus, PLUS it repaid us the retro amounts for the overtime and shift allowances that we had already been paid in October [The line in bold above]
It paid us TWICE for back pay on increased overtime and shift allowance rates - ONCE in October and AGAIN in December.
We were, indeed, incorrectly overpaid by this amount.
There are a number of FLSA calculations and restrictions which apply but this is the basic issue. We were paid twice for overtime rate enhancements.
So that is the explanation of what happened. I for one can accept that their system made an error and now understand how it came about.
My main issue with APEX and the County was the manner in which staff have been treated throughout this whole issue.
I very strongly made a number of points on this matter concerning the fact that we were given a phone number to call and then told nobody could explain how our individual amounts were calculated; they wanted the money back all in one go; that this has dragged on for weeks and that we were basically being treated like children who's allowance was being withheld.
APEX managers apologized for this and accepted their fault.
They have also agreed that they will be sending out an email to those concerned with a more though explanation than I have been able to give you in lay mans terms. There will also be a contact number to talk with somebody who WILL, they say, be able to give more details if staff require that.
Expect this in the next week or so.
Going forward:
APEX state they have fixed the problem, with a patch from the software designer and we will not have this problem in 2015.
APEX and HCSO payroll are developing a program that staff will be able to run to check on their pay and explain some of the payments and allowance calculations. Expect this in a month or so, they correctly, want to make sure it works accurately before releasing it.
There are plans within HCSO for us to move away from Workforce Director and put more of our pay calculations into the APEX system, which should remove a number of the human error / data entry problems we have experienced.
APEX accepts that our pay slips are almost impossible to understand and they state they are working with the software designer and other users - many other Counties use APEX/Peoplesoft - to come up with solutions.
So, where does that leave us?
Essentially the APEX program screwed up, the County claims they have fixed the problem and promised to communicate with those concerned.
MNPEA will, however, push forward with applying what pressure we can to have the pay slips improved, including requesting an audit of the system by the MN Department of labor.
The Stewards and I will strive to keep you informed
Nicc Newton-D'Taillefer
MNPEA Steward
http://hcso.co-911.com/?p=1012
No comments:
Post a Comment