WRH Retro Payment Update

Message from Sharon Morris Director Human Resources WRH

Preparation for payment of OPSEU retro payments for July 5 2018

Good afternoon.

I have just met with the manager of payroll about the work that is being done to complete the retro wage payments for July 5, 2018 pay deposit.

The new pay rates are in the payroll system and have been for a few pays.

The payment of the retroactive wage increases for this contract up to the April 1, 2018 increase on all hours paid is the work that has just been completed by the Financial Analyst who works with Human Resources to complete the payroll step. We have a less complicated retroactive payment to process for this contract because we do not have the grid harmonization step to do this round. There is , however, from the system point of view, one complicated step that has to be checked which relates to increases that are being paid for the 2017 when there was a retro payment for the earlier agreement also paid in that year. That step just requires a careful review for the staff to make sure that the increases are being implemented correctly. The payroll manager advises me that they are doing their final check tomorrow and as the long weekend holiday takes one day out of this pay period they must complete this work on Friday in order to get the payment done for the deposit “send” for July 5.

The payroll manager has indicated that he will let us know if there are any issues with that doublecheck step.

The best case is that there is not and the file can be uploaded and ready to send to the banks for the July 5 pay deposit. The worst case scenario is that there is an issue which would have to be fixed on July 3 delaying the importing of the file to the bank and thereby delaying the payment to Friday July 6 (one day). That is the worst case scenario which he has advised me he will report to me on Tuesday July 3 if that is the case. Otherwise the payment will be done for July 5 pay deposit. Again a reminder to the staff that they get their regular pay stub “first” on Wednesday and then after all of the pay stubs have been sent out the retro pay stubs are sent out.

What is not being paid at this time are the following as extra steps:

•  Recalculation of mat leave top ups: these are individual calculations that must be done by two people in payroll and there is a need for some more time to have those completed. I will advise you as soon as we know when that work is completed;

•  Vacation entitlement: Staff will be paid retro payments on the paid vacation that they have already received. Example if in 2017 an employee was paid for 21 shifts of vacation at their old wage rate this retro payment will be then the retro amount for the 21 shifts at their new rate. What is not yet in this process is the change to the vacation entitlement agreed to. Staff are calling payroll to ask why their new entitlement is not yet “showing” on their pay stubs and also will likely ask where is the new entitlement for use in this vacation year (for those who moved entitlement). That is a separate piece of work that is next on our work plan now that the retro payment work is complete. We will get that spreadsheet of employees entitled to vacation entitlement changes the week of July 3 for your reference.

• Any other changes that we committed to for completion for the June 30 list (“outstanding issues”) could not be processed in this pay deposit because of the retro payments going in to the system (ie responsibilitypay). Those will be done for the July 19 pay deposit to avoid issues with the calculation of the current retro payments.

Please email Sharon Morris or Michele Buchanan any questions with regard to the retro payments.

Sharon Morris