L.A. Teachers Have Payday Nightmare

(CBS)  Jordana Alzate puts on her best game face in front of her children, but her pay stubs from the Los Angeles Unified School District are enough to make the second grade teacher crack, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes.

Alzate's pay problems started right after the premature birth of her fourth child, Enzo. While he was fighting for his life, she had to fight for her pay. She says that since March, pretty much every check has been incorrect.

"I'm short $900 here," she says, pointing to one check, "and the next one is $297 ... I'm short about $2,000 dollars on that check," she adds, pointing to a third.

Like nearly 40,000 other teachers, Alzate has been caught up in a payday nightmare brought on by the school district's new $40 million computer payroll system. Since January, it has spit out $53 million in overpayments, $7 million in underpayments, and sometimes no pay at all

"They are wondering why they're teaching," said A.J. Duffy, president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles. "We're hearing more and more people saying after this year, I'm gone."

Angry teachers have put the spotlight on superintendent David Brewer who says a new, $10 million consulting team has fixed the problem.

"I think what most teachers will find right now is that for the vast majority of them, their checks are correct," he said.

The Los Angeles school superintendent may believe the payroll problem is solved, but try telling that to teachers in this room who have been battling bureaucracy to get paid for almost a year.

"I think it's laughable," says teacher Richard Sayer. "I think it's like, 'Let's tell everybody what they want to hear, go away.'"

This month, Jordana Alzate finally got her first correct paycheck in nine months. But she's still owed money.

"For me it's been a humongous stress on my family and myself," said Alzate.

For now, she'll try to figure her way out of debt.

[likeablunchs]

'' .. i acquired such piles of such stuff, that my co-workets became so envious that they entered a state of such diminished capacity as to reduce their ability to produce goods and services, thereby reducing my ability to acquire piles of stuff .. so i compiled, with their assistance, 244,140,625 catalogs of stuff they could shop for with free catalog dollars (1 shopping ''mall'' / catalog for each 625 folk) .. and so i re-enabled them to do more business with the outside world and the inside world as well .. ''

[tromba59]

Did I read this correctly? They have spent $50 million for a system to cut pay checks. $50 MILLION? And the first $40 million wasn''t enough? They then paid another $10 million for a consultant.

This is government completely out of control. I''d bet anything I could do the same task, correctly, on my PC.

[theydontwork]

"They listened, took notes and then did nothing....." Mike Dreebin, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/schoolme/2007/03/by_bob_sipchen_.html



SAP Helps Los Angeles Unified School District Prepare for Growth
October 04, 2005
http://www.sap.com/about/press/press.epx?pressid=5008

Deloitte Consulting
http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/url/ITEM/FE8BE4FF0CC1E0D4E0330A081FB5E0D4
"deliverables-based"

[Bookcat]

I''m not sure what the average salary is for the average LAUSD teacher. But I do know that LAUSD teachers get paid ONCE A MONTH. And sometimes during this payroll debacle, their erroneous paychecks have been for as little as 99 cents for the entire month.

So if Jordana Alzate got 99 cents instead of $2,000.99 in that one paycheck, then that would mean she was making $24,011.88 a year--not minimum wage, true, but certainly all that much money, especially in L.A., and especially for someone who''s taken additional training beyond college (to get their teaching credential, to rate as highly qualified for No Child Left Behind, etc.).

And certainly 99 cents for an entire month doesn''t go far at all....

[slim1h2o]

I''m short about $2,000 dollars on that check," she adds, pointing to a third.

I was thinking the same thing, linfinster. And we all thought they were soooo under paid, that couldn''t pay attention. LOL Well the jig is up.

[jetranger7]

You know what this sounds just like,, the TRUCKING INDUSTRY !!! Why thats exactly the stuff they pull on their Drivers every week, shortin you on your Mileage Pay, and your Stop pay, and your unloading pay, and your fuel bonuses, and your Paid Hollidays, If I didn''t know any better I''d say the same morans running that show were from the TRUCKING SECTOR too ! Then they wonder why they can''t find drivers and retain them, doesn''t take a rocket scientist to figure it out, well yes it does, because many of them are so pathetically stupid, I''m surprised they have a job at all !! Thats why theres so many ads for drivers in the paper all the time, cause, your not getting paid decently, and always getting shorted on your checks ! Thats why you see more and more willing to train, is to take advantage of those who are unsuspecting of the business, and take them for a ride ! Then theres the fraudulent companies who try to sell you a truck to work for them, thats another fraudulent rackett in itself, all a scam to get your money and cheat you !!! WWW.OOIDA.COM

[linfinster]

Wish I could say I was shorted $2000.00 from ONE paycheck ... how much does she make??! WOW! Still, with four kids, I bet she needs every one of the dollars! I would lose my house if I didn''t have all my pay every time. These oil prices are killing us too. Just had an elderly woman die of hypothermia in my area .. couldn''t afford the oil, the furnace was old and she was on a fixed income from the broken Soc Sec system. What a great future we have ... still better than Darfur.

[brianbwb-2009]

The payroll system was intentionally set to make underpayment mistakes, so the payee would either spend months fighting, during which the money collects interest in a bank, or they give up and quit, in which case the money is not paid at all.

When an overpayment is made, with lightning speed the problem is usually addressed, and the overage is withheld from the next check.

Teachers are not hourly workers, there should be no discrepancy in the checks, the amounts are fixed. This snafu is most probably intentional, and those involved in setting up such a scheme should be investigated for fraud and theft.

[jetranger7]

What I been saying for years, the idiot who thought up this payroll syatem, had to have a College Degree, and so do the people who operate it, thats the Problem right there, they''ve been taught to be brain dead idiots when they come out of these colleges !! So now what you have and are witnessing is, the system has finally caught up with the system, that the rest of us in the private sector have to deal with almost daily. Then you have a Supervisor or Superintendent whos so utterly clueless and obviously just doesn''t care enough to make sure, everyone is properly corrected on their pay, thats his job is to oversee departments and fix problems, he''d be fired immediately if he worked for me and escorted by my personel security guards off the premises followed by a law suit as well !!!! He''d best get his act together and start doing his job, instead of performing LipService !!