Payroll Update - November 17, 2022

Information for Employees, November 17, 2022

Hello, employees.  We would like to provide you with the following information as an update from the finance, payroll, and human resources departments.

Bi-weekly and monthly payrolls

This week, we processed the bi-weekly payroll that will be paid on November 18.  We experienced minimal system-related payroll issues for this pay run.  Next week, we will begin processing the monthly payroll that will be paid on Friday, November 25. 

Bonus for classified employees

On November 23, we will pay an annual bonus to classified employees who qualify (this bonus is traditionally paid in November).  Classified employees who qualify for the bonus are permanent, hourly employees who work more than 50 percent of the time and were hired on or before June 1, 2022.

Global issues

We continue to work on the following global issues (a global issue is one that affects a group of employees).  In addition to the global issues, we continue to work on individual employee issues that may not be included in a global issue.  See the current global issues below.

• Health insurance escrow – The health insurance escrow is used to pay health insurance for employees during the summer “no pay” months.  A number of 10- and 11-month employees did not receive this deduction in September or October.  We continue to work with CherryRoad Technologies to identify the employees affected by this global issue and make adjustments to ensure that the employees have sufficient funds to cover health insurance premiums in summer 2023.
• ASPIRE employees – Employees who work in the ASPIRE afterschool program are earning compensatory (comp) time for their work rather than being paid for the time.  We continue to work with CherryRoad Technologies on a resolution for this issue.
• Overpayments – Some employees were overpaid as a result of the payroll conversion.  We are working with the employees affected by this issue to recover the funds so their year-to-date earnings are accurate.  This is an on-going process.

Additional information

Payroll continues to review, research, and resolve issues that were brought to our attention as a result of employees meeting with a member of the customer service team.  One area of focus is excess deductions.  Once an employee’s issue is reviewed and a resolution determined, the employee should see an adjustment in the next regular payroll run.  This also is an on-going process that can be time-consuming based on the complexity of the issue.

The retirement file for June has, once again, been submitted to the ORBIT state retirement system.  Each time this file has been submitted, it encountered errors and was not accepted by the state system.  Now, we are waiting to see if the latest file with corrections will be accepted or if we will be notified of additional errors that will have to be resolved.  This has been an especially frustrating issue for us – the ORBIT system rejects the entire file once it detects one error; it does not run the complete file and identify errors collectively at the end of the run.  This is why the file has been submitted multiple times.

Please know that we are making some progress on addressing issues, but it is still a time-consuming effort.  We are encouraged by the additional support that has been put into place and are hopeful that we will continue to make progress on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring that future pay runs have minimal system-related issues.

Thank you for your continued good work for Gaston County Schools.  We know that everyone is anticipating the Thanksgiving holiday next week, and we hope you are able to spend some well-deserved time with your family and friends.  

Gary Hoskins, Chief Financial Officer