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Payroll confusion

Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 08/05) - The union representing territorial government employees are to make sense of an announcement this week foretelling changes to the way the GNWT calculates their paycheques.

The union president claims they were never notified of the government's decision to hold back a week's pay starting April 22. Finance officials, meanwhile, say they told the union about the plan a year ago.

Todd Parsons, president of the Union of Northern Workers, said what made Monday's announcement even more surprising is that the government and the union are in the middle of negotiating a new contract.

"It was unexpected, especially during the current collective bargaining process ongoing right now," said Parsons.

"I wasn't pre-notified of the government's decision. I pretty much found out the same time the majority of the membership did."

The union sent out a bulletin Wednesday night to government employees assuring them that the change had nothing to do with contract negotiations, and would advise them more on the situation after further research.

Lew Voytilla, comptroller general of the Financial Secretariat Management Board and Sylvia Haener, director of labour relations, insist the union was aware of the plan.

"We actually wrote to them last summer," said Haener.

"I got a written response and a conversation with one of the union officials about the concept."

Voytilla said the plan had nothing to do with ongoing bargaining negotiations.

"It doesn't really affect contract negotiations at all," said Voytilla.

The new payroll plan calls for a "holdback" on the second week of pay so staff at the government's Financial Management Board Secretariat can figure what staff actually ought to be earning the week before the cutoff date, which up until now has typically been on payday in many departments.

Voytilla said the change became necessary after the government decided to consolidate its 13 pay offices into one.

"We currently have 13 pay offices and they're not all consistent on how they pay," said Voytilla.

"Some pay on holdback and some don't. Where we do pay right up to payday it's a problem for everybody because we actually have to cut the cheques for that payday eight days in advance."

Voytilla said it's not always possible to accurately determine someone's pay because hourly-rate employees may work more or fewer hours than the previous week on the week before pay day. Overtime or deductions for overpayment would have to be figured out over the following pay period instead.

To get the plan rolling, the April 22 payday will see the last week held back, but compensated with an advance equivalent to what employees earned the week before.

Starting with the May 6 paycheque, employees will see approximately one per cent deducted off each paycheque over a 52-week period to pay for the advance.

On May 6, employees will receive paycheques for a two-week period with a cutoff date ending the week before (April 16 to 29).

"Nobody loses any money on it and by using this advance approach nobody sees a dip in their income," said Voytilla.