CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Thousands of state employees, scheduled to have their pay switched from twice monthly to biweekly, will not see the transition any time soon.
The state Enterprise Resource Planning Board, which oversees the implementation of the state’s new wvOasis computer system, voted Monday to delay the next phase of employees who were supposed to see the change next month.
State Auditor Glen Gainer strongly opposed the board’s action to postpone the new pay period calling it a “holding pattern” in which lawmakers are playing political games with the issue.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the Legislature chooses to enter in this and come out and makes some statutory change,” said Gainer.
Gainer focused most of Monday’s meeting on the ERP’s decision two years ago to implement the biweekly pay period saying their methods, outlined by state labor laws, were understood by the board. He said, now, the Legislature is raising questions about those methods.
“Everybody was in agreement that biweekly was the best way to go and it wasn’t until we had a political change in the Legislature that now it becomes a political issue in questioning whether that methodology is right,” he said.
“It’s a case of where the state, once again, is going to spend dollars to chase a few pennies,” Gainer said about the delay that would now cost taxpayers’ money.
Senate President Bill Cole and House Speaker Tim Armstead released a joint statement in response to the meeting.
“We thank Gov. Tomblin and Treasurer Perdue for their actions this morning halting further implementation of this costly payroll system, and we look forward to continuing to work with them in a bipartisan manner to ensure our state employees are paid fairly and accurately,” part of the statement said.
The controversy that has surfaced in the last few months has left some to believe the change would shorten worker’s money and some legislative leaders thinking the change will result in workers being overpaid every few years. Gainer said state lawmakers are raising objection to the change saying that the current biweekly pay plan provides salaried workers with an extra 27th paycheck once every 11 years.
Family Court judges, that are scheduled to be apart of the next wave of employees to see the pay change, have expressed concern with how the biweekly pay would impact their employees. Last week, they decided to postpone filing a petition with the state Supreme Court to block the next phase.
Gainer said he believes the methodology they’ve utilized has been correct and fair to ensure every public employee was paid for every day and every hour he or she worked. He said a different method, proposed by some, would under pay workers every single pay until 2020, which he believes Family Court judges should be more concerned with.
“I don’t believe we can implement (the second methodology), I believe under existing law,” he said. “But if the Legislature chooses to order us to do that, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“The Legislature could come back and say ‘no we’re going to pay public employees less and we’re going to have you utilize a different methodology,'” Gainer said. “I disagree with that.”
The measure will now be taken up by state lawmakers.
Workers with several other state agencies were switched to a biweekly pay period in June and will remain with the new pay plan.