WASHINGTON — Complaints by Maryland state workers that their paychecks came up short just before the holidays have led lawmakers to call for the formation of a joint committee to investigate the problem.
In a news release issued by Maryland state Senate President Mike Miller, senate finance committee chair Thomas “Mac” Middleton called Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan administration’s handling of the payroll issues “unconscionable”.
Gary McLhinney, director of professional standards for the Department of Public Safety, concedes there have been problems with the way paychecks are calculated. He said the state has staff working round-the-clock to fix the problem. “That being said, we know it’s very important that all of our employees be paid properly,” he said.
McLhinney said part of the problem is that public safety workers do not have access to computers in secured facilities. “So there’s a human element where time is taken from standard time cards and then placed on a spreadsheet.” McLhinney cites that as the heart of the problem, but adds, “We have a solution within the system that everybody gets their 80 hours of pay.”
There have been more than 1,000 complaints from state workers about payroll issues, but McLhinney insists those complaints include concerns about other issues.
“Employees have contacted our hotline for everything from they lost their password, they don’t know how to log into the system to how they account for time when they ran out of leave,” he said.
In the most recent pay period, “We handwrote checks for 24 employees out of our almost 10,000 employees.” McLhinney said.
Members of the work group will be announced next week. In the meantime, McLhinney said the work continues to clean up the errors. Referring to the public safety workers, he said, “They do a very dangerous and difficult job and they deserve to be paid on time, and we’re working round-the-clock and through these holidays to make sure that they are.”
