Recently our membership received EA’s regarding Timecard Approval

Please Print, Read and Post this very important additional information

Thank You

Friday April 20th, 2012 the Department sent out EA-166, REMINDER TIMECARD APPROVALS. The Union would like you to have additional information relating to the Timecard Approval issue and add to the story so you have a complete picture of the issue.

First and foremost let the Union go on record as being extremely supportive and encouraging of members not only approving their timecards, but also auditing their time and ensuring their timecards are correct, and in fact their pay warrants and direct deposits accurately pay the right wage and time accrual. There have been many paycheck errors in the thousands of dollars for our members, and in Department this large, there are bound to be more, so don’t leave any money on the table.

Having said that, the Department EA’s both contain partial information and some inaccuracies by implication, and in our opinion does not properly educate the membership about an issue that is before us as a result of County Management failure, not rank and file membership failure.

The Fire Department was audited by the County for employee and supervisor timecard approval status, and found to be deficient in the thousands. They were audited as a result of a lawsuit that was won on behalf of rank and file members of another department within the County where employees were submitting correct timecards and supervisors were changing the timecards to reflect inaccurate and less hours than were actually worked resulting in underpayment. The audit was a result of a multi-million dollar settlement due to supervisors deliberately underreporting the number of hours worked.

The County has now implemented a dual approval policy to avoid this type of situation in the future. We are a firm believer in reviewing and approving your timecards for accuracy and reviewing your paycheck to ensure you are being paid for the hours you worked at the rate you should be calculated at. However, the fact is that the employees below the rank of Captain, with the exception of 40-hour paper timecard employees, generally speaking do not enter their own time into IPFIRS, the supervisor does, and as you know as long as the supervisor approved, you received all of your pay. This has been the practice and procedure.

The County is demanding of each County Department an employee and supervisor timecard approval or an override from the Department. We will continue to use IPFIRS to report our time, while everyone else has been switched to e-HR, the new electronic timecard submission where they had been paper timecards only.
The Department has been very creative in the wording of the EA to indicate if you don’t approve your timecard, your overtime (SRC) and Leave Time (Benefit Time) “may not be paid”. In some cases “freelance” AC and BC follow up e-mails to Divisions and Battalions indicate bonus’ pay may not be paid as well. Local 1014 is in the process of ensuring that the Department “Override” is used to ensure our members are paid in full each and every pay period as long as the Supervisor has approved the timecards. In the absence of continued long standing practice to that effect, we will assert Article 15 Protections and file an Unfair Labor Charge against the Department and the County.

Let us be very clear once again, we are extremely supportive and encourage our members to check their timecards, their paychecks and in fact to log on to mylacounty.gov and track and follow your rates of pay and accrual of days on the new e-HR system to ensure you are getting the proper pay…it is in your best interests to do this to ensure no loss of pay, or overpayment has occurred.

We do not believe in fear-mongering or inaccurate information to scare the employees into compliance with timecard approval. We want out members to be treated like adults and in a respectful manner by the management, nothing less.

We believe the Department had an obligation to give at least a few of these facts as to why they are being asked to come into compliance with a dual employee / supervisor approved timecard and should have pointed out the very positive benefits of approving your timecards and verifying payment of said hours in your paycheck. They should have also not acted as if the rank and file employees, the represented membership are the cause of the problem identified in the audit, and will be penalized and even disciplined of compliance is not attained. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is an obligation to train and educate the membership.

Finally for the education on what to do if you receive an underpayment or find a paycheck error as a result of approving your timecards and checking your paychecks. First, please help us watch for any changes in timecard approval and payment practices that result in non-payment of any SRC, Bonus’, Leave time, etc.

If you are underpaid or overpaid for any reason, please refer to Article 19 of our Memoranda of Understanding (M.O.U.) which reads as follows:
ARTICLE 19 EMPLOYEE PAYCHECK ERRORS

Section 1. Underpayments
Management will rectify a $100 or more underpayment on the employee's payroll warrants within three (3) calendar days, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, after receipt by the Auditor-Controller of a written request from the affected employee's departmental payroll section. An affected employee's departmental payroll section shall promptly forward a written request for a corrected or supplemental pay warrant for the affected employee to the Auditor-Controller. An employee shall be deemed to have waived the above indicated time limits, and to have indicated that he/she is willing to accept an adjustment on the following payroll warrant if he/she does not request a corrected or supplemental warrant within two calendar days after receipt of the regular payroll warrant, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. Corrected or supplemental warrants will be sent by regular County messenger service to the employee's departmental payroll section. In emergencies the departmental payroll section will arrange to have the supplemental or corrected warrant either hand delivered to
the employee or picked up by the employee at the Auditor's public counter. The provisions of this section may be implemented even if the employee cashes the payroll warrant.

Section 2. Overpayments
Management will endeavor to notify the affected employee of an overpayment on the employee's payroll warrant(s) prior to making any deduction to recover any such overpayment from the employee's subsequent payroll warrant(s). Upon request by the affected employee to the Auditor-Controller's designate, Management will establish a reasonable method of repayment.

In addition to regular pay periods, there are 7 more payroll runs/mo. to fix errors.

The Union Executive Board voted unanimously to contact the County directly and handle the training ourselves for the membership. We have been working closely with the County on this issue at the Fringe Table with the CCU. It’s your money and there is so much more to this story. We will be seeking further explanation from the Department and the Big County as well, and we will get that to you as soon as we receive the information. We will continue to work through this with the Fire Chief and the Fire Department to inform the membership.

From your 1014 Executive Board