Volusia County public school employees face payroll repayment after software glitch
Volusia County public school employees face payroll repayment
Volusia County Public Schools has identified a payroll error that overpaid 307 transportation employees, including bus drivers, attendants, and technicians, forcing them to repay excess wages.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Volusia County Schools has identified a payroll error that overpaid 307 transportation employees, including bus drivers, attendants and technicians, forcing them to repay excess wages.
The glitch, caused by a software error in the district’s payroll system, mistakenly paid some hours at an overtime rate. Officials said retroactive pay adjustments in February reduced most of the overpayments, though some employees still owed money.
The glitch
What they're saying:
Volusia Public Schools explained that its new payroll system had a software error that paid some hours at the overtime rate.
VPS says they became aware of that error in November.
Affected employees owed an average of $184 each, and the District said they didn’t want to make them pay that back right around the holidays. So instead, VPS waited until February, when a retroactive pay raise was supposed to kick in, and deducted the balance from that.
A little more than a third of affected employees still owed on average a little under $100.
So that was deducted from their next paycheck.
The impact on employees
Nicole Lashley has been a bus attendant for Volusia County Public Schools for the past year.
"A bus attendant is on the bus and helps out with strapping in students and being there for students who have disabilities," she explained.
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She says she noticed back in October that she was overpaid. She tried calling payroll, then a different payroll department, then went to the school board and then finally the union.
"Definitely frustrating," she told FOX 35.
They worked out that she would have the overpayment taken from her next paychecks, but that had problems too. And she says there have been problems with her taxes and her paid time off.
"I'm worried about it happening again," said Lashley. "Because that was a glitch. It could have another glitch."
"The trust has been kind of lost," she added.
Other Volusia County overpayments
FOX 35 News also reported recently on overpayments issued to EMTs in Volusia County.
The County clarified, the system they’re using is different, and the specific software issue that impacted their system is not the same as the Public School District. Volusia County Government and Volusia Public Schools are also separate entities.
Still, the issues bear many similarities. And there’s an update to the EMT story.
The County originally told FOX 35 back in January fewer than 30 employees were affected by the EMS payment glitch.
The audit
But an audit found, there were actually 268 people impacted in total – 55 who were overpaid and now owe the County, and 213 who were underpaid.
The majority of the people overpaid aren’t getting much money back, but a few dozen will get over a thousand dollars.
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As for those who owe the County, four owe over $10,000. Ten others owe upwards of a thousand.
The County told FOX 35 they’ve worked out payment plans with each employee, saying in a statement,
"We’re empathetic to all affected employees and are balancing that with our ongoing responsibility to ensure all taxpayer dollars are transparently accounted for and legally dispersed."
The Source: This story was written based on information shared by Volusia County Schools and from previous reporting by FOX 35 News.