Months after ASU officials pledged to fix errors in the employee payroll system, some University workers say they are still experiencing difficulties.
Last July, ASU implemented the new operating software, OASIS. Peoplesoft, run by OASIS, became the new managing system for ASU payroll.
Around 3,000 ASU employees experienced problems last summer, receiving paychecks that were either too high or too low, or not receiving paychecks at all.
In an August interview, Adrian Sannier, vice president of the University Technology Office, said problems would be resolved by the end of September.
Yet University workers said problems persist.
"It's been messed up several times since they said it was fixed," ASU maintenance painter Jay Reinke said. "I'm getting consistent [pay]checks now, but every now and then, there's a glitch."
Reinke, who said he had several problems last semester, including once receiving a check for "$0.00," said that while paychecks this semester have been monetarily dependable, other problems have come to light.
"My check said that I had no comp time," he said.
Comp time, or compensation time, is overtime pay earned when an employee works more than 40 hours a week. Employees have the option of taking overtime pay — 1.5 hours paid for every hour worked — or taking paid vacation.
Reinke also said his vacation and sick leave hours were underrepresented on his paycheck.
Sannier directed questions to ASU spokeswoman Leah Hardesty, who said Peoplesoft still has its share of troubles.
"We've seen a significant reduction in the amount, but we are still experiencing some problems," she said. "As issues arise, we try to resolve them as quickly as possible."
At the beginning of the new year, ASU officials found difficulties in Peoplesoft's recognition of vacation, comp time, and sick time, Hardesty said.
"We identified that there was a glitch in the system, tried to contact everyone and fixed it," she said.
Although employee paychecks indicated missing vacation time, the time was actually still present online in the Peoplesoft system, Hardesty added.
But Reinke said he had to present old check stubs to prove how many vacation hours he had actually accumulated.
Physics professor R. Bruce Doak said he encountered another problem.
Doak said he came across an error in Peoplesoft programming that could cause professors working during the summer to take an involuntary pay cut.
The previous payroll management system was divided into 18 pay periods throughout the nine-month academic school year. The new system, he said, pays out the same salary over 20 pay-periods.
Having more pay periods results in a smaller amount paid per check. As a result, summer paychecks, which are equal to checks paid during the academic school year, turn out to be smaller as well.
The problem, Doak said, is that there are six summer paychecks under both the old and the new payroll system. Thus, professors working during the summer get paid a lower total salary.
"They can rectify it by increasing summer pay per period," said Doak.
Doak said he contacted ASU's human resources department many times but was unable to get a satisfactory response.
"You'd think they'd have a ready response, but HR gave me the runaround," he said. "They try to be helpful, but they just don't have the answers."
The discrepancy was brought to the University's attention, and an HR meeting will be held this week to address the problem, said Hardesty.
"We're already looking into it to make sure everyone gets paid accurately during the summer," she said.
Reach the reporter at: daniel.newhauser@asu.edu.
