The Town of Midland will be moving to a new payroll system this fall to help address some of the issues staff have experienced with their paystubs the last couple of years.
The issue was discussed in detail at a recent special meeting of council, during which Laura Yourkin, director of human resources/health and safety, provided detailed answers to the questions contained in a motion brought forward by Coun. Carole McGinn.
"Council has been made privy to the fact of the 2017 service-delivery review," said Yourkin, "which identified a number of errors with regards to the fact that our payroll system had not been upkept over the years.
"As such, we cannot provide information around how many employees still have paystub issues. That is personal information so we are not able to get into that with detail."
She did, however, have an answer for when a permanent solution could be expected.
"Council approved in its 2019 budget the transfer to ADP, which is a full encompassing payroll management system and HRIS," said Yourkin. "And that is the permanent solution for which we're well through into the implementation stage. We will be going live as of the end of September."
She added that any employee who seeks a request through payroll matters for a confirmation of employment letter has received it within 72 hours, thus addressing questions arising due to staff error(s) impacting employees' livelihood.
"There has been no hiccup and no concerns," Yourkin said. "If employees, councillor McGinn, are forwarding concerns to you with regards to their specific payroll, please do direct them to us. It is part of the administration and we are there as experts to provide that advice and guidance."
As for T4 errors, she said, that's also been addressed.
"The errors were corrected in 2018," said Yourkin. "For the 2019 T4s, all staff were given communication regarding the CPP maximum limit that the amount of deductions was correct and that was part of the upgrade glitch with (the system). Everyone was notified about it and it will not impact them on their tax returns."
Coun. Bill Gordon wanted to know if the new system would provide any security around delivery of paystubs, which are currently emailed to employees and council members.
"With ADP," Yourkin said, "you will have a unique username and password using which you will login and the ADP system will maintain your paystubs for seven years, including your ROE and you'll also be able to compare and contrats your paystubs from one to the next. It's more about self service for our employees. They can also look at their available time off through the system."
McGinn then asked if the paystubs will have more line items on them once they go online?
Yourkin said she believed that to be true.
"I've used the system in the past and it's phenomenal," she said, adding that employees should be directed to their supervisors, managers or the HR department for questions around their payroll.
"Staff have supervisors and managers and payroll administrative staff to come to," said Yourkin. "Your emails, as per the council code of conduct, I'm not responsible to respond to you about an employee concern. If an employee submits it, it comes directly to us and then it is through the mayor and CAO we provide responses. That is part and parcel of the separation between council and staff."
