The Rochester Teachers Association is preparing a legal challenge against the city school district over ongoing payroll issues.
Adam Urbanski, the union's president, told WXXI this week that the union is seeking an immediate injunction halting the district's use of a new software system for payroll citing a failure to pay staff accurately and make accurate salary deductions — which he noted are violations of the existing collective bargaining agreement.
The city school district switched its human resources and payroll software to Oracle Fusion Program at the beginning of July. Urbanski says the problems haven’t stopped since.
“After this system malfunctioning all summer and then through another full month of September and even the October payroll, I don't know how much longer they need to come to the conclusion that Oracle for payroll in Rochester is a mismatch,” Urbanski said on Wednesday. “It's not going to get better.”
In a letter to union members Wednesday evening, Urbanski said to continue to report any erroneous payroll issues to the union and to the district.
“RCSD employees should not have to constantly wonder whether their next paycheck will be correct and on time - nor should they have to constantly spend their own time chasing down payroll errors. We absolutely refuse to accept this as the new normal. That is why we are pressing the District to switch payroll to a competent (non-Oracle) vendor,” Urbanski said in the email.
Superintendent Eric Rosser’s first day on the job coincided with the start of the new payroll system rollout. He said this week on Connections with Evan Dawson that while the district awaits any potential litigation, he continues to stand with staff.
“We need to make sure that, just as we are student-centered in every decision that we make, we also need to be centered on taking care of those employees,” Rosser said.
A spokesperson with New York State United Teachers confirmed the statewide union’s lawyers are working with the Rochester teachers union “on this challenge,” but did not provide further details.
