WASHINGTON 鈥斅燙omplaints 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 鈥淢ac鈥� Middleton called Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan administration鈥檚 handling of the payroll issues 鈥渦nconscionable鈥�.
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. 鈥淭hat being said, we know it鈥檚 very important that all of our employees be paid properly,鈥� he said.
McLhinney said part of the problem is that public safety workers do not have access to computers in secured facilities. 鈥淪o there鈥檚 a human element where time is taken from standard time cards and then placed on a spreadsheet.鈥� McLhinney cites that as the heart of the problem, but adds, 鈥淲e have a solution within the system that everybody gets their 80 hours of pay.鈥�
There have been more than 1,000 complaints from state workers about payroll issues, but McLhinney insists those complaints include concerns about other issues.
鈥淓mployees have contacted our hotline for everything from they lost their password, they don鈥檛 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, 鈥淲e handwrote checks for 24 employees out of our almost 10,000 employees.鈥澛燤cLhinney 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, 鈥淭hey do a very dangerous and difficult job and they deserve to be paid on time, and we鈥檙e working round-the-clock and through these holidays to make sure that they are.鈥�
