Jersey City's new payroll system still plagued with problems

💲 Jersey City switched to a new payroll company at the beginning of the year

💲 A complicated schedule for public safety worker overtime was blamed for problems

💲 The city will cover any fees, overdrafts, and penalties incurred by an employee

Despite promises that problems that plagued Jersey City's payday two weeks ago would not happen again, some checks were still not right Friday.

The first payday under a new payroll company did not go well as many city checks were incorrect or funds were not available, especially for public safety workers. City Business Administrator John Metro said the Treasury Department worked all weekend to cut supplemental checks and make sure everyone got paid.

"At the next pay period, we have mechanisms in place to make sure it doesn't (happen again). We saw there weren't necessarily these issues with the fire department so we're going to follow that same model. We're committed to getting it right this time," Metro said.

It appears Metro and his team need more time.

Number of Jersey City public workers (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The system is almost there

Police union president Joe Cossolini told The Jersey Journal that the new payroll would be 95% correct but is working with city officials to achieve 100%.

Employees again found problems with their checks on Friday but not as many as the first week, one unnamed employee told The Jersey Journal.

Another worker told the Jersey Journal that their check is missing hours, especially overtime. That was the biggest problem with payroll during the first week.

"The bigger issue with police was that we were dealing with over 25 schedules due to specialized units and different technicalities," Metro told City Council. A "finger punch" system that sent data to the wrong place contributed to the problem.

A city spokeswoman and several city council members on Friday morning did not respond to New Jersey 101.5's request for more information.

Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com

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