By Ken Mason

Remember last year’s Social Security numbers debacle? Well, listen to this. We full-timers and part-timers have over the years experienced a series of problems in the world of payroll checks.  And excuse me, none of the problems listed below can be blamed on Los Angeles County, nor on the classified staff working feverishly to make sense of the contradictory directives from above. The payroll department can only proceed based upon the information it receives. 

    The goat that should be fingered lies elsewhere.  Let me count the ways, starting in January 2002.

    During the winter session and on into spring semester the campus was informed that part-time faculty would finally receive their retroactive distribution of “equity monies” that the state had appropriated for part-time faculty. The intent was to bring part-time faculty salaries closer to that of the rate paid to full-time faculty.  This is euphemistically called “equity.” In the confused and topsy-turvy world of those who make such decisions this resulted in an overpayment to non-teaching part-timers, who then were soon informed that they had to pay the money back!  Hum. I’m sure many have heard this before.

    At the start of the summer session, we rushed to our assigned classes. After laboring for more than four weeks without a paycheck, we received a curious email memo. It informed us that the full-time contract and tenured faculty would be paid on an “overload” schedule. This was in fact misinformation which generated a rash of confusion. Summer pay for such individuals was supposed to be based on the provisions in Article 9 of the collective bargaining agreement.

    But there is more. At the beginning of the summer session, full-time contract and tenured faculty were also to receive their yearly step advancement, as clearly stated in the collective bargaining agreement. This did not occur, and only after the error was discovered by the FA were retroactive checks issued in October.

    Fall semester therefore arrived with a bit of apprehension. Faculty assumed their responsibilities, taught their courses, and as usual many signed up to teach overload assignments. Payroll checks for overload are issued at the end of the month, which for the fall means September 30. But not this fall.  Faculty were informed that it would be included in their regular payroll check on the first of October. But wait-- there is more. The August and September paychecks of faculty on the 12-pay schedule failed to include the salary increases from the 2002-03 salary schedule.  Those unpaid salary increases from August and September will be on the November 1 regular paycheck instead of on a separate retroactive check that should have been issued in October.    While I’m at it, should I mention the failure to make authorized payroll deductions for faculty/staff parking for 2001-2002? Did you know that now the District is deducting twice the amount to make up for their error from last year! Without any authorization from faculty for the double charge! Who’s watching the store?

    Indeed, if we explore the scenario fully, in truth there has been a major payroll problem for several years here at SMC. Faculty at SMC work but are not paid on time or correctly! God only knows what the classified staff is experiencing. And check [sic] this out. Every individual retro check costs the district $10! (How’s that for saving District funds!)