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
