Hundreds of teachers who were to receive extra payments in their paychecks Thursday as part of a deal with the Turnbull administration didn’t see the money, thanks to a quirk in a Department of Finance computer system.
Apparently because Finance’s payroll system doesn’t allow two checks to be cut for the same employee in one pay period, hundreds of teachers won’t see their lump-sum payments until next week. According to a Government House release Thursday, a "special program" will have to be written to change Finance’s Financial Management System.
An individual familiar with the issue said approximately 300 teachers didn’t receive their payment.
Meanwhile, with a new program in place in Finance, Gov. Charles Turnbull has ordered that all remaining lump-sum payments be made by early next week.
Still, the fact that the agreement reached between teachers and the administration wasn’t totally fulfilled didn’t sit well with Tyrone Molyneaux, St. Croix American Federation of Teachers president. He said the union intends to file unfair labor practice charges against the government.
"Right now members feel very disillusioned," he said. "We’ve entered into an agreement. It ought to be honored."
The lump-sum payment was agreed to by members of the AFT on St. Croix and St. Thomas in December as part of a larger contract agreement following a three-week strike. Under the agreement, 80 percent of the territory’s teachers would see, along with their regular paychecks, a lump-sum payment.
School employees with one to two years of experience will be paid $1,500; those with three to four years' service will receive $1,750; and five years or more experience will lead to a $2,000 lump sum payment. The payments are funded by the $2.4 million savings the government realized during the 18-day teachers strike.
The wage agreement approved by union members in December was virtually the same as one rejected in October. But in the approved version, the government upped the amount of money provided to union members in exchange for forfeiting rights to negotiate salary increases for the five previous school years.
Entering the required data into Finance’s system will continue into the weekend, with all payments expected to be made by early next week, according to the Government House release.
