February 2023 Kronos Update

SHARE organizers met again recently with UMass Memorial to discuss payroll updates in the wake of the international takedown of Kronos in December of 2021 (You can find more context and read previous SHARE updates here.) W2’s make this an already busy time for Payroll, but they continue to make progress toward getting things back to normal. According to Sergio Melgar, UMass Memorial Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer: 

• To the best of their knowledge, Payroll believes that, after a year of work, underpayments due to the Kronos hack have now been corrected: Payroll has processed all of the discrepancies that have been submitted.

• The big work left to be done by Payroll is overpayments – there are about one thousand employees in that situation. Very few of the overpayments have been collected so far, except in cases where an employee would be leaving the institution, or where the employee requested to begin the process because they recognized they would be required to make a big payback..

• Recoupment will start soon, probably March. Although the employer is legally entitled to recoup any overpayments, the hospital is currently evaluating the idea of a a “forgiveness threshold.” Because there’s a certain cost to processing collections the hospital expects to waive the repayments from those who were overpaid less than a certain amount. The amount of the threshold is yet to be defined.

• Paid Time Off/Earned Time banks are now believed to be correct. Some banks were allowed to go negative, and some banks even did so by hundreds of hours. The hospital is currently evaluating plans to allow employees to make that up over time.

• Although SHARE continues to advocate that each member be issued an accounting statement describing the details of their personal situation — the dates and amounts of any corrections have been made in your case — the employer tells us that creating a simple report is impossible in practical terms, due to the complexity of each case, the variables involved from bargaining unit to bargaining unit, incentives, etc.

• The hospital is legally required to make sure your pay is correct. SHARE members who believe that their pay or accrued time remain incorrect may contact the Payroll office directly to work out the details. Because reviewing each case can involve several hours for a Payroll Rep, only so many requests can be handled per day, and the queue for a review appointment is likely to be long. Inquiries and disputes should be directed to payrollummhc@umassmemorial.org.

• A new, unknown type of hack was cause of the previous international cyber-attack on Kronos. We came back in record time compared to other institutions. No one can promise that the systems that UMass Memorial uses will forever remain impervious to cyberattack in the future. However, Sergio Melgar describes that UMass Memorial is rated highly in terms of cyber security, and those systems are subject to continuous review.

June Kronos Update

SHARE organizers met recently with UMass Memorial to discuss payroll updates since the international takedown of Kronos in December of last year. (You can find more context and read previous SHARE updates here.) According to Sergio Melgar, UMass Memorial Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer: 

• Payroll has corrected roughly three quarters of the 25,000 reported discrepancies, and issued 5000 payments. (The average is 4 discrepancies per employee). They are currently resolving roughly 500-750 discrepancies per week. They expect to complete those corrections in July, and will then run a comprehensive computerized audit of the system. That audit should catch any Kronos discrepancies that were not reported by employees. Supervisors will have to double-check numbers against their department schedules. 

• As predicted, fixing the large, complex set of problems is taking many months. Many other businesses, municipal governments, and other institutions continue to be in the same boat. UMass Memorial’s challenge is heightened by outdated software and multiple sets of rules to follow (based on each union’s negotiated agreement, etc.). 

• Starting in August, attention will move to correcting the PTO. (In the meanwhile, the numbers in the system continue to be incorrect – your accruals balance should NOT be used to deny a vacation request). 

• Details about employees repaying the hospital for overpayment have not yet been decided. In general, we’re told that employees who owe money will be able to re-pay over about 10 weeks. Employees who want to pay back what they owe in one lump sum will have that option. Employees who recognize that they’ve been overpaid can volunteer to begin paying before the guidelines are established – contact payroll to discuss options. 

• Payroll aspires to have all PTO corrections completed and have all systems back to normal by the end of the 2022 calendar year. 

Meanwhile, SHARE is advocating for clearer communication. Some SHARE members are having a hard time determining whether Payroll has yet addressed the discrepancies they’ve submitted, or confirm whether they are on the list to get corrected. Some members were surprised to realize that the corrections had been made to their paychecks without their noticing.  

• SHARE urges UMass Memorial to report out to each employee whether they have been corrected and by how much, so that SHARE members can figure out of it they think it was done correctly. 

• SHARE supports the idea that SHARE members could repay any money owed through earned time instead of cash. 

Kronos Update from SHARE

SHARE continues to meet with hospital leaders about the fixes to the Kronos system . . . and about the corrections for SHARE members’ paychecks. We know that many of you continue to encounter problems with your pay and accrued time.

Here’s what we learned when we met with Sergio Melgar, UMass Memorial’s EVP & CFO, at the end of February:

Payroll still has a lot of work to do to process all of the Kronos discrepancies. They tell us they cannot process all of the problems any faster. They are prioritizing the biggest discrepancies, people who’ve had empty paychecks, and those that have affected lower-paid staff.

Important Things to Know

• PTO: While Payroll is now fully functional again through Kronos, but the PTO (Paid Time Off) part of Kronos is still broken. UMass Memorial is waiting for a fix from the Kronos company. Fixing PTO blances could take 2-6 months. Hospital leadership will direct managers that it is okay for employees to go negative on their Paid Time Off so that people will be able to take vacations this summer.

• Get an Advance on your Pay: Do you need money now to pay your bills? You can ask for an advance on your pay. Apply now thru March 11, and get a check the week of March 14th.   Apply at the Pay Advance Request Form link: https://forms.office.com/r/KzsNHneaCk

• Management says that 350 employees requested advances on their pay in the last two cycles. Payroll was able to fix 200 or more of those, so they didn’t need the pay advance in the end. The rest received the requested advance.

• To help the process go faster, you should not RE-submit any discrepancies that you have already reported.

• DO, however, send in ALL of your discrepancies. Don't wait for one to be fixed before sending in the rest.

What’s Slowing Down the Process?

In addition to the sheer number of discrepancies to be fixed (24,000), high staff turn-over is slowing things down. People who quit pay have to be paid anything they’re owed before they leave. The fixes are complicated because the rules are different for different groups of employees. SHARE, for example, has negotiated different overtime rules, differentials, and policies from other unions in our hospital.

New pay discrepancies keep getting added, because staff aren’t back in the habit of punching-in with Kronos. Payroll is seeing about 150 new pay discrepancies in each week’s pay cycle, and says that correcting those discrepancies takes time away from the team making corrections that were due to the Kronos outage.

How Does this Affect My Taxes?

Everyone should have gotten a 2021 W-2 from UMass Memorial. These will not be changed as pay is fixed – the extra pay will show up in your 2022 W-2. The taxes are based on what you are actually paid during the year. You can go ahead and file your 2021 taxes. (We are hearing that some SHARE members who had a leave of absence haven’t gotten their separate W-2 from AbsenceOne for pay you get on a leave of absence. Contact SHARE and we can try to help.)

If people get their pay fixed, the extra pay may come in more than one payment, using smaller amounts, so that the extra pay doesn't trigger a higher tax rate for that paycheck.

Why Did Some People Get a Spreadsheet to Fill Out?

If Payroll is working on your case, and they need more information, they may send a spreadsheet for you to fill out with the details. (If you need help filling it out, SHARE can try to connect you with someone who can help.) If Payroll hasn’t gotten to your case yet, or if they are working on your case but have enough information, you won’t be sent a spreadsheet.

Watch for Fixes in Your Account

We’ve heard that sometimes people don’t know that their pay was fixed. If you are owed money, it will be direct deposited in your bank account. It may come in several small chunks (to avoid higher taxes). So pay attention to your account. Corrections made in your paycheck will be marked with a plus or a minus for each corrected day on your stub.

What if the Correction Is Not Correct?

If you feel that there is a mistake in the corrections, make sure to file a discrepancy. Management has assured SHARE that they will work with you until there’s a confident answer that the pay is correct.

Pay Advances

The hospital is going to offer pay advances again next week – watch your email from the hospital for details.

How Is Payroll Dealing with All of These Problems?

Our hospital’s Payroll department has added additional staff to help triage the issues, and they are working long hours. Many of the problems can only be addressed by Payroll specialists who know and understand the varied rules that apply in different situations, so the additional staff helps them to be able to focus on the more complicated tasks. The hospital has already issued thousands of checks.

Additionally, UMass Memorial has hired an outside contractor that is familiar with the Kronos issues. They are being brought in to help audit, and make sure that all employees get paid what’s owed them, even if the employee doesn’t report the discrepancy.

As You’ve Heard Before

The hospital continues to assure us that no employee will be shorted any pay in the end. (The employer is legally required to pay what they owe you. SHARE is committed to this too!) Also, Payroll is making sure that employees have 401K taken out so that they get their 401K match when they make any pay corrections.

In case you missed it:

System-Wide Information from UMass Memorial 

_____________________________________________

From:            Robin Sodano, Chief Information Officer, UMass Memorial Health

Brian Huggins, Senior Vice President, Finance & Corporate Controller, UMass Memorial Health

To:              All UMass Memorial Health Caregivers

Date:            March 4, 2022

Subject:         Kronos Update: Pay Corrections, Pay Advancement Program, Paid Time Off Requests

Our outstanding payroll team continues to work every day to make corrections on the approximately 24,000 incidents that have been submitted so far. With additional parts of our Kronos environment being returned to us, we continue to look for different methods to make these corrections faster but it will still take us months to complete them all.

How can you help?

The most important thing each of you can do to help is to make sure your time is accurately entered for current pay cycles. We receive about 150 new pay discrepancies in each week’s pay cycle and correcting these discrepancies takes time away from the team making corrections that were due to the outage. Please submit corrections from current period pay cycles via the check discrepancy form. Please do not submit those corrections to the Kronos Incident site.

If you have a pay discrepancy from the Kronos outage incident, either an underpayment or overpayment, please log these incidents as soon as possible. While we remain focused on those that have been underpaid, we will eventually correct those that have been overpaid. If you have been holding off on submitting an incident, please do not wait any longer. Please submit any pay discrepancies related to the Kronos outage using either of the two methods listed below:

1.      PREFERRED METHOD - Fill out the Kronos Incident Help Desk Form. You don’t need to be logged in to the UMass Memorial network to access this. Using this form will enable us to respond more quickly to your issue, (providing more detail is better for problem resolution).

2.      If you can’t access the form, you can still email kronosincident@umassmemorial.org or call 508-334-1500. In both cases, you must leave your full name, employee ID number, manager’s name and an explanation of your pay discrepancy.

Pay Advancement Request Window Opens Monday, March 7

The next cycle of temporary pay advances for those caregivers who have experienced a financial hardship from being significantly underpaid or not paid at all due to the Kronos outage will be March 7 to March 11, with payments beginning the week of March 14. Caregivers wishing to access this program should fill out the Kronos Advance Form. You don’t need to be logged in to the UMass Memorial network to access this. Using this form will enable us to process your request more quickly.

Currently, we expect to begin recoupment of these advances, including advances from the first two cycles, in April 2022.

Paid Time Off – Requests and Balances

We currently don’t have the Kronos functionality to correct Paid Time Off (PTO) balances. Our IS teams are still working with Kronos to repair this important function. Until then, no caregiver will be denied time off because of a negative balance. Once we can get the PTO function back to normal, it will take an additional two to six months to correct each and every PTO balance for all of our caregivers.  

We understand the frustration you may be feeling due to the Kronos outage. Thank you for your continued patience and willingness to help us resolve issues related to the outage as soon as possible. We remain committed to ensuring that all caregivers will be paid for every hour worked and to correcting all PTO accruals. We continue to ask for your patience as we work through each caregiver’s unique circumstances to make corrections.

Additional Resources

·        Kronos Incident Help Desk Form

·        Kronos Incident Hub page

Getting a Pay Advance While the Kronos System Is Brought Back

When Kronos went out and we recognized what an effect the cyber-attack would have on our hospital’s payroll system, SHARE advocated for UMass Memorial to offer advances in pay to help offset any pay you might be temporarily shorted. (Ultimately, the hospital is required to ensure everyone’s pay is made whole, as described here.) The hospital has since put an Advance Pay system in place.

In case you missed it, we’ve reprinted UMass Memorial’s announcement describing the Kronos Pay Advancement System and how it works at the bottom of this post. Here are a few additional things you should know:

1. The advance will be taxed like regular pay, not the IRS bonus rate. (However, if you opt for the $2000, you might pay a higher tax rate because it looks like you are getting paid that amount in a week and make $100K in the year. The member would get any extra tax taken back out when they file their taxes for 2022.) 

2. 401K will be taken out of advance checks. The problem is, if you elect 401K deductions, you get the hospital match. If they don’t take it out, then you lose out on the match. You won’t end up “whole” for the year, since that advance is taking the place of your pay.  

3. If someone puts in for the advance because they missed a paycheck, and their name is at the top of the list to get a fix, payroll may reach out to them to ask them if they want just the fix instead, or if they want both. 

4. Managers do not have access to the specific question of “did this person ask for an advance”. They are aware of the compensation of their employees in summary for the month. Given that the last month has adjustments for thousands and future months will continue to have many more adjustments as well, we are told it will be nearly impossible for the manager to differentiate an advance from a correction.
   

From UMass Memorial

As mentioned in Dr. Dickson’s memo on January 14, 2022, we are establishing a temporary pay advancement program to help those caregivers who have experienced a financial hardship from being significantly underpaid or not paid at all due to the Kronos outage.

Caregivers wishing to access this program should fill out the Kronos Advance Form. You don’t need to be logged in to the UMass Memorial network to access this. Using this form will enable us to process your request more quickly.

You can also access and submit the form by:

1. Scanning the QR code with your phone

2. Scanning a completed paper form or taking a picture of it and emailing it to kronosincident@umassmemorial.org.

This advance is a lump sum payment, subject to applicable payroll taxes and deductions, and will be paid via direct deposit within seven (7) business days after completion of the form. Advances are available in either $500.00, $1,000.00 or $2,000.00 gross amounts. Only one request per caregiver will be paid. If, after the Kronos system is fully restored, UMass Memorial finds you were overpaid for hours you did not work, you will be responsible for reimbursing UMass Memorial for any overage, which will be done in equal portions over the course of future payroll cycles.

Availability

Access to this temporary program will be as follows:

• The program opens on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 and will close at 4 pm on Friday, January 21, 2022.

• The program opens again on Tuesday, January 25, 2022 and will close at 4 pm on Friday, January 28, 2022.

We must close the program each week on Friday to allow time for the response team to process requests.

If you have questions about this temporary pay advancement or your obligations in the event of an overpayment, please contact your HR Business Partner with questions.

Additional Resources

• Kronos Incident Help Desk Form

• Kronos Incident Hub page

Honoring Dr. King, Voluntary OT & Redeployments, Kronos, Free College, and More

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King weekend is here. Although that involves holiday pay and even a three-day weekend for some SHARE members, we also want to thank those SHARE members who will be working, as always, helping patients and our hospital.  

Dr. King was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers who sought unionization when he was assassinated.

SHARE has many reasons to honor Dr. King and his legacy, including because of his deep commitment to unions. "The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress," King said. 

Because MLK day is not recognized at Marlborough Hospital, SHARE members there will all be working as usual; the SHARE negotiating team is currently pushing for the holiday to be recognized in its upcoming contract agreement. 

KRONOS 

SHARE continues to work with UMass Memorial and the Attorney General’s office to fix the Kronos mess. The hospital says they are moving as fast as possible to get this fixed.  

• SHARE will work to make sure SHARE members get their pay fixed accurately. 

• SHARE will make sure SHARE members who have been overpaid can set up a repayment plan that works for them. 

• SHARE is escalating situations where SHARE members got no paycheck to get them paid. 

• SHARE is proposing to the hospital to give a pay “advance” to anyone who needs it – a cash loan for people who need to pay their bills now.   

In our last blog post about Kronos and Payroll, we included a link to outdated information about the hospital’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which now administers the EASE fund for financial relief in hard times. We’re sorry for any confusion or frustration this may have caused you. UMass Memorial’s EAP is now run by an outside company, Optum. This is the correct contact information to reach them:  

• By telephone: 866-263-3525 (This is the best way to reach EAP) 

• Online: www.LiveandWorkWell.com, Company Code: umassmemorial  

• Mobile device: Visit the above website for instructions on downloading the app

Another COVID Surge: Volunteering to Help and Possible Redeployment of SHARE Members 

As the hospital cancels outpatient procedures and adds surge spaces for COVID beds, they may need staff to help in different areas. 

Volunteering for Extra Time and Over-Time: SHARE members who want to pick up time where they are needed can email laborpoolnonproviders@umassmemorial.org. (Include your name, job title, department, campus location, personal phone number, work email, and what days/times that you would be available to work beyond your current schedule.)  

The more people who volunteer, the fewer people will potentially need to be deployed involuntarily. SHARE and UMass Memorial will continue to discuss possible redeployment as plans become more clear. For reference, you can see the agreement we made for the last surge.

In the News: Federal Student Loan Relief 

In case you missed it, the federal government has extended the Federal Student Loan Payment pause until after May 1 of this year. Our parent union, AFSCME, has been fighting for this, and it’s a great help for many Americans during the pandemic. AFSCME also provides help to individual union members with student debt. We’ve reprinted this letter from AFSCME to our blog describing the opportunities for those who have student loan debt. 

AFSCME Free College Benefit 

Of course, one great way to avoid student loans is to avoid having to pay for college altogether. Thanks to the AFSCME Free College Benefit, union members and their families can earn a variety of online degrees at no cost. Many SHARE members have already benefitted from this program, which continues to add more degree programs and affiliated educational institutions. For details and the latest offerings, visit the AFSCME Free College Benefit website.   

Kronos Update from SHARE

To state the obvious: the Kronos situation is horrible for some SHARE members. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time – many SHARE members are picking up tons of overtime, there are incentive bonuses, and complicated holiday pay situations. SHARE members are stressed out and over-worked by the pandemic and staffing shortages. And it happened over Christmas, a time when many SHARE members need that extra cash in their paychecks.  

You Will Get Paid What You Are Owed 

It’s the law: UMass Memorial must pay you the correct amount as soon as they are able to. In SHARE’s discussions with the hospital, it’s clear that UMass Memorial is committed to getting it right. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office is paying close attention. And SHARE will help members make sure the corrections are made to their pay. 

Our best advice to you: Keep track of your hours for yourself, in addition to documenting your hours for the hospital, so you can check to make sure it’s correct later.  

What’s Going on with Corrections? 

Staff have reported over 11,000 paycheck errors. Payroll is triaging them, focusing first on staff who are missing full paychecks, and those who make the least money. Payroll has added staff to help with this job. The experienced staff who best know the payroll rules (differentials, etc.) and the Infinium system (the hospital’s payroll software) are focused on fixing the triaged priority situations. 

However, they aren’t able to keep up, and not all the 11,000 reports of errors haven’t gone through triage yet.  

What You Can Do If You Face Extreme Hardship 

Your pay is going to be fixed. If you can live without the money owed to you for now, we recommend to sit tight and wait, so Payroll can focus on the most urgent situations and keep their process moving forward.

In case of emergency, there’s the hospital’s EASE fund, which is designed to help employees in need, as well as Hardship Help services offered to all union members through the Union Plus program 

Some SHARE members are deeply affected by the Kronos situation, especially with everything else going on right now. Thanks to everyone for being patient. Your kindness goes a long way.  

You Can Pay It Back Gradually, If You Owe 

If the hospital overpays you, you will have to pay it back. However, the hospital has agreed with SHARE that SHARE members should be able to pay it back gradually if they need to. The hospital says its first priority will be to pay staff any money they are owed. 

When Will This Be Fixed? 

The hospital has told SHARE that employees will continue to get the same amount (based on the November 28 week check) until Kronos is up and running again. If this goes as the hospital expects, the first paycheck based on your actual hours would be the beginning of February.  

First you will get an accurate paycheck based on your hours. Then the hospital will work on using your time records (punching, paper and through the app) to correct the December and January checks. Fixing every mistake will take weeks, if not a couple of months. 

All Paid-Time-Off banks (earned time, etc.) may currently be wrong, so you should ignore any numbers that you see on your paychecks. The hospital has raised the caps to allow extra time to be accrued while this is broken. Keep your own records of your time off, just to be safe. 

What Do We Know about What Happened? 

UMass Memorial says that Kronos (and the cyber pirates) only had access to very limited personal information: employee names, the hours they worked, and maybe the age of the employees. Sensitive employee information, such as social security numbers, is kept in Infinium, UMass Memorial’s local payroll system.  

The Kronos attack was one of the largest international data breaches of the last year. Although the Kronos attack affected over 2000 clients worldwide (including the Target chain of stores, Tufts Medical Center, and the MBTA), we’re told that UMass Memorial was in many ways at the “tip of the spear” in having to figure out how to get employees paid fast. The hospital is one of few organizations that pays on a weekly basis -- the hospital had 48 hours to figure out how to get people paid after the system went down, while many employers like Tufts Medical pay every 2 weeks, or even monthly. The hospital says that other employers hit by this did the same thing UMass Memorial did – continue to pay employees based on a past paycheck. 

Epic, our hospital’s other huge IT system, is completely separate from Kronos. (Epic appears also not to be susceptible to the Log4j attacks that have been in the news lately. Unlike Kronos, Epic does not have cloud-based databases.)  

When SHARE asked why there was no back-up system for a situation like this, one senior leader compared the Kronos outage to Hurricane Katrina: a worst-case perfect-storm scenario beyond anyone’s contingency plans.  

It may not be accidental that the cyber attackers hit in December. It’s the worst time for employees, and for businesses who have to do end-of-year tax work, so the hackers could demand a higher ransom. 

Kronos has now paid the ransom to the cyber attackers. The company is in the long process of unlocking, inspecting, and testing its systems before those can go live again. After that, the hospital will then begin its own inspection and test processes with Kronos. Then, finally, UMass Memorial will be able to issue correct paychecks again.