Corrections officers could be owed hundreds of thousands of dollars

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This article was published 17/01/2017 (3212 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 1,000 Manitoba Corrections officers have been getting shortchanged on their holiday pay for more than a decade, union officials say, describing the latest troubles associated with the SAP payroll software system used within Manitoba’s public sector.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union has been in a protracted battle with Manitoba Corrections since 2005 after it discovered part-time employees working on statutory holidays often missed four hours of overtime pay.

The union has been in touch with Manitoba Corrections ever since, filing two grievances and heading into arbitration in 2014. All the while, workers continued to see errors whenever they worked a holiday.

The union’s president, Michelle Gawronsky, estimates hundreds of thousands of dollars have been owed to workers over this period.

“They showed up for work on time, they worked their shift, they worked on their holidays, to make sure they were providing services their employer had guaranteed would be there for Manitobans,” she said.

“They were more than patient in waiting for this to resolve.”

Gawronsky said this is the latest in a string of payroll errors connected with the SAP Canada payroll software program used by Manitoba Corrections. The union has also been battling for years with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority over late payments, overpayments and underpayments since the WRHA switched over to the program by the Toronto-based company in 2012.

“We expressed our concern that it was a program that can’t keep up with complex workplaces, and it has been clear for some time,” Gawronsky said. “We are trying to clean up a lot of issues.”

The Free Press revealed last week the WRHA overpaid $1.2 million to more than 1,000 employees over this four-year year period. A whistleblower connected to the WRHA later told the Free Press countless employees weren’t getting paid on time, sometimes waiting weeks for a paycheque. 

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, Manitoba Association of Healthcare Professionals and Manitoba Nurses Union have filed multiple grievances related to payroll with the WRHA since SAP was implemented as the WRHA’s central payroll system.

The WRHA has maintained the payroll program made it easier to spot payroll errors.

Gawronsky said the delay in settling the dispute with Manitoba Corrections was caused by the complexity of the payroll error.

The error didn’t occur for every part-time officer or for every holiday they worked and no significant pattern causing the error has emerged.

It is unknown what caused the error.

“There is a lot of people who had to go into play to look at the pay stubs, look at the schedules, look at the collective agreement and relate everything together,” she said.

“Then the government would say they are trying (something) to fix the system, and it just didn’t seem to work.”

A solution may be on the horizon. A three-step payout for shortchanged employees is in the works. The arbitrator ruled in the MGEU’s favour in September, and Manitoba Corrections says it has fixed the issue.

Current employees will be credited for the years 2005 to 2013 by Feb. 28. For the years 2013 to 2016, the calculation is expected to be concluded by May 31.

Employees no longer with government will have their payments processed after that date. 

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @kristinannable