HIDOE settles HSTA paycheck delay grievance
The department agrees to damage payments, audit
News Release from HSTA, September 19, 2024
In our featured video, HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. and HSTA Deputy Executive Director Andrea Eshelman answered questions from reporters Thursday about the settlement agreement involving more than 500 teachers who have not been paid on time this school year.
The Hawaiʻi State Department of Education has agreed to conduct an audit and pay 500 teachers hundreds of dollars each for the financial harm they suffered because of paycheck delays, settling a grievance brought by the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association.
HSTA President Osa Tui said, “While we appreciate the $2,000 placeholder checks which were provided to affected educators, there’s no doubt that serious harm was done to many of them who have every right to be compensated in a timely manner. Ultimately, this should never happen again and we’re pleased to have language in place which ensures an outside entity will examine the process and make recommendations to address this internal failure.”
The HSTA and HIDOE met earlier this week and were able to successfully agree to address the harm caused to teachers who failed to receive timely paychecks on Aug. 20 and Sept. 5.
First, all teachers affected should see a paycheck Friday, Sept. 20, and they should be paid any previously owed salary amounts by that date.
Second, the HIDOE acknowledged the harm caused by the delay by agreeing to make payments for damages to teachers who worked full pay periods and went unpaid for working those pay periods. Generally, if you work from the first working day of the month through to the 15th, you should expect to be paid on the 20th. If you work from the 16th of the month through the end of the month, you should expect to be paid on the fifth of the following month.
The HIDOE will pay $400 to educators who were not appropriately paid either their Aug. 20 or Sept. 5 paycheck and $800 for those who were denied both their Aug. 20 and Sept. 5 paychecks. The payments will address late fees, interest payments, as well as time and effort expended by educators to address their missed paycheck(s).
Based on member requests, the HSTA was also able to successfully secure a 60-day extension for teachers to repay the $2,000 placeholder checks issued earlier to educators who were not paid on time. Repayments will now be due Nov. 30 and recipients of those checks may be able to elect to pay in installments rather than as a single lump sum pending a determination of the feasibility of doing so by the HIDOE.
The department will also work with the HSTA to develop a FAQ sheet and publish a memo addressing questions and appropriate steps to be taken related to Employee Union Trust Fund (EUTF) and Island Flex contributions.
The HIDOE has also committed, pending approval of the state Attorney General’s office, to provide the same options and remedies listed above to approximately 100 Hawaiʻi public charter school teachers impacted by the pay delay.
To fully identify the issues that led to this mishap, the HIDOE agreed to HSTA’s request to retain an independent entity to conduct an internal audit of HIDOE procedures related to pre-boarding and paycheck distribution. Pre-boarding includes the completion of criminal background checks, submission of valid teaching credentials, and generating a personnel action form (Form 5). Once the external auditor’s recommendations are rendered, and necessary actions are identified, the department will develop an implementation plan, and the superintendent will implement the necessary changes to prevent a future situation in which employees are not paid in a timely manner.
Lastly, in an effort to prevent further financial strain on our members, the HSTA will waive HSTA member dues deductions for the affected paychecks. Pending legal approval, HIDOE has committed to providing $5,000 toward Bargaining Unit 05 professional development offerings through the Hawaiʻi Foundation for Educators, HSTA’s nonprofit organization.
Next, the HSTA and HIDOE will meet in the coming days to finalize and sign the settlement agreement. In addition, the union will work through the list of affected teachers to verify their qualifications for payments and will reach out to those teachers accordingly. Should teachers have questions, please reachout to your individual UniServ Director. If you are unsure of who your UniServ Director is, please use our contact form.
Educators tell BOE of ‘catastrophic” consequences from paycheck fiasco
Educators from around the state submitted testimony to the Board of Education explaining the brutal effects of the paycheck delays in advance of the BOE’s Thursday afternoon meeting during which Superintendent Keith Hayashi is scheduled to brief the board about the paycheck situation.
“The ramifications of this issue have been nothing short of catastrophic for me,” said Jashua Walker, a teacher at Kawananakoa Middle School.
“When my paycheck did not arrive on time, I was immediately hit with an overdraft fee due to insufficient funds after a dental procedure. This unexpected charge jeopardized my ability to cover essential expenses, including credit card and loan payments. As a result, my credit score plummeted by nearly 80 points, severely impacting my financial stability and future creditworthiness,” he wrote.
“The inability to receive my paycheck on time meant that I could not afford basic necessities, such as a bus pass. Consequently, I was forced to walk 77 miles over eleven days from Kaimuki to upper Nuuanu to get to work. This dangerous, physically exhausting and demoralizing experience was a direct result of the delayed paycheck,” Walker added.
Walker also accrued significant late fees on his utility bills due to his inability to make timely payments.
“My bank accounts were at risk of closure due to overdraft fees, further compounding my stress and financial instability. The Department of Education’s (DOE) response to this situation has been profoundly inadequate. The use of vague language like ‘experiencing a delay’ is misleading and dismissive of the real, tangible harm caused. What we endured was not a mere inconvenience; it was gross negligence and incompetence,” Walker said.
Special education teacher Lynn Zinsius from Ka’ōhao Public Charter School in Kailua, was also affected by the paycheck delay.
“It is unacceptable that there was no communication to employees until days after (Aug. 20, the first paycheck she didn’t receive) and that the HSTA needed to be informed by members and not DOE directly. The stress of this situation and time that has gone into researching and trying to get to the bottom of this was an unnecessary burden. This energy should have been used towards our students. The DOE and the superintendent need to do better for faculty and students,” Zinsius wrote in testimony to BOE members.
A teacher who asked to remain anonymous told the HSTA, “My paycheck delay has added much stress to my life and the lives of my family members. It is costing my family both emotionally and financially. My sonʻs college tuition payment had to be put on a credit card, adding both a fee and interest to an already large payment.”
“We are underpaid and undervalued and this should have been taken care of immediately. How are we still in this position weeks and weeks into the school year?” the teacher added.
Hayashi: ‘We deeply regret the hardship that this has caused’
At Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi told board members, “We truly understand how crucial timely pay is, and we deeply regret the hardship that this has caused.”
“This experience has been a learning opportunity, and we are committed to improving our processes moving forward. We are taking steps to engage an independent entity to conduct a thorough internal audit of our onboarding and paycheck distribution procedures,” Hayashi added.
Board members questioned top HIDOE officials about how they will work on improving onboarding processes and communication with new hires.
BOE member Wesley Lo said, “The goal is to get people paid on time and I think that as part of the audit, I would hope that they look at the technology and the processes in between the state because that’s a very cumbersome process and it would be much better to have a payroll HR and a payment system all integrated. That would probably do that in an online onboarding type of system.”
Sean Bacon, HIDOE’s assistant superintendent in charge of the Office of Talent Management (OTM), responded to Lo’s concerns and said, “What we are seeing is many more applications than we’ve ever seen before (with a new online system) to really help out principals. It has increased the workload definitely for our staff, but then it becomes a paper-based process after that. And I think that’s where we’ve got to try to meld the two together here to figure out what we can do to try to take some of that burden off and get our teachers to pay in a timely manner.”
BOE member Kahele Dukelow said the department needs to be more proactive in planning to be sure that educators hired in the weeks before school starts are still paid on time.
“So we know it’s gonna happen because oftentimes people are hired late. So what can we put in place to make sure that, even though it’s not their real paycheck, you know what I mean? You cannot really ask people, even though we have in the state, all we do, all the time, to wait six weeks. I think we maybe do a better job of having something, you know some kind of process where if you start, you wait a month or you wait two weeks or whatever it is,” Dukelow said.
“Whose job is it to communicate to them? Is it the school? Is it OTM? How is that pay date communicated and is that part of some kind of agreement that they receive upon, like you start this day, you get paid this day, those kinds of things,” Dukelow added.
Bacon said, “We want to make sure that we are treating our employees with the utmost respect as they’re entering the department here, because I think recruitment and retention are two of the things that we’ve really been focusing on.”
The HSTA initiated the grievance process in late August, after HIDOE leaders were unable to explain what caused the delays, and repeatedly refused to turn over a list of affected teachers. The department gave HSTA a list of HIDOE teachers affected by the pay delay on Sept. 9.
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HSTA to meet with superintendent, department staff over missed paycheck grievance
HIDOE to provide list of impacted employees, delay details by Sept. 13
News Release from HSTA, September 6, 2024
The Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association is scheduled to meet with Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi and his staff on Monday, Sept. 9, after initiating the grievance process last week over missed paychecks for hundreds of public and charter school teachers at the start of the school year.
HSTA is hopeful that this informal grievance meeting will answer many questions about the paycheck delays and provide a path to remedy the harmful effects, especially after receiving a limited and partial response from the HIDOE.
The HSTA initiated the grievance after department leaders were unable to explain what caused the delays, and repeatedly refused to turn over a list of affected teachers. Without that list, HSTA cannot determine the full extent of the problem, nor work with bargaining unit members to address the myriad issues resulting from not receiving their regular paychecks as expected.
In its response, the HIDOE said it is “currently compiling this information [list of employees affected and details on which paychecks were affected] and will provide it to HSTA by Friday, September 13, 2024.” The department also said that as of Sept. 4, 376 teachers were impacted by paycheck delays — 321 would receive a Sept. 5 check, and 55 will not receive their first check until Sept. 20.
Many teachers reported to HSTA that they have not received a paycheck as of Sept. 5.
The HIDOE shared that a large part of the paycheck delay was caused by the “human resource transaction process involv[ing] email and paper-intensive activity.” From what HSTA can gather, the issue is not with HIDOE payroll or the Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) but with the Office of Talent Management’s (OTM) inability to adequately plan and staff for the needs of the public charter schools who pay the HIDOE for such services.
Hawaiʻi has 38 public charter schools that operate as independent employers separate from the HIDOE. However, many of these schools contract and compensate the HIDOE to process employee records and administer their payroll. The department also handles payroll for special education teachers at every public charter school.
HSTA was shocked to learn that the HIDOE allocates only one human resource assistant to manage 38 charter school accounts, which consist of over 1,000 charter school employees, including 413 charter school teachers for this school year. In HSTA’s assessment, the HIDOE has failed to adequately plan and staff for the increasing demands of the charter schools that the HIDOE is paid to handle.
The department informed HSTA that 114 “public charter school teachers were not processed in a timely manner for the August 20, 2024 pay date.” The HIDOE indicated that this situation has resulted in the department recognizing the need to increase the number of personnel to manage the needs of the public charter schools.
The HIDOE said affected teachers should contact the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF) and Island Flex Office regarding any impacts to their health benefits or Island Flex accounts. Unfortunately, such advice is complicated by the HIDOE’s inability to confirm when teachers can be assured of reinstated pay, as many teachers said they did not receive a paycheck as of Sept. 5.
Since the HSTA began collecting names through a survey last week, 87 teachers self-identified as not receiving their paychecks. Many said the HIDOE did not inform them if they were to receive a Sept. 5 paycheck.
Impacted teachers who have not yet done so are urged to fill out the survey linked in Friday’s Member Matters e-newsletter.
The department offered placeholder payment checks of $2,000 to ensure impacted teachers received compensation for their work. However, many teachers said they were frustrated and confused because they needed to pay it back by Sept. 30. They were not told whether they would receive all of their back pay before that date.
Of the impacted teachers who self-identified to HSTA, 22% reported impacts to their credit score, and between 20–30% reported missed or late payment or overdraft fees.
One teacher’s comments captured their collective frustration: “We have gotten no communication before, during, or after from the DOE. Any sort of communication has been due to our teachers reaching out and making phone calls and sending emails. Even with phone calls and emails, we have all received different answers (even different answers from the same people).”
Another shared: “I am concerned about having to make many phone calls to try and keep straight all the information to fix the lack of deductions while simultaneously trying to teach kids with special needs. It seems crazy to send close to 400 (affected teachers) calling the same entities rather than the DOE having one person fix the problems they created. I’m hoping my credit score will not be affected by this mishap.”
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HSTA begins grievance process, asks BOE to look into paycheck fiasco
More than 300 teachers haven’t been paid this school year
News Release from HTSA, August 30, 2024
After state education department leaders stonewalled the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s attempts to help more than 300 public and charter school teachers who haven’t received paychecks yet this school year, the union began the grievance process and its president called on the Hawaiʻi State Board of Education (BOE) to get involved in the paycheck fiasco.
During a BOE meeting Thursday, HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. told board members, “the department and the superintendent have been less than forthcoming and actually they are being obstructionist when we have made repeated asks about how this has happened and which of our members have been affected. They don’t want to respond.
“This board needs to hold Keith and his subordinates accountable and make sure that this new fiasco is on the agenda for the (BOE’s) Sept. 19 general business meeting. HSTA will have a lot more to say then,” Tui told the BOE.
Without being provided a list of those who have been affected, HSTA is having difficulty determining the full extent of the problem and working with bargaining unit members to address the myriad issues resulting from not receiving their regular paychecks as expected.
The HSTA asks any teacher who has not received their first regular paycheck this school year to complete a survey through a link in Friday’s Member Matters e-newsletter.
On Tuesday, HSTA representatives had a conference call with Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) Assistant Superintendent Sean Bacon and Human Resources Director Ainoa Naniole, who were unable to provide any explanation about the cause of the paycheck delays, and repeatedly refused to turn over a list of affected teachers.
Later that same day, Tui texted Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi to ask why HIDOE officials had refused to release to the union a list of the names and contact information of all the teachers who had not been paid on time.
On Wednesday evening, Hayashi texted back that HIDOE was checking with their deputy attorney general to see if the department could give the union such a list. Hayashi claimed he wanted to ensure the department didn’t breach any confidentiality protections because he wasn’t sure all affected teachers had joined HSTA.
Tui responded that the superintendent’s arguments didn’t hold water: “You (Keith Hayashi) know that HSTA is the exclusive (representative) for the entire bargaining unit irrespective of their membership status with HSTA.
“(It) is our obligation to check with those who are affected, especially considering that you folks have said 330 of them are new employees. Without a list, we are being denied our duty of fair representation,” said Tui.
Some 377 teachers at schools on several islands did not receive their Aug. 20 paychecks, and HIDOE issued checks worth $2,000 and delivered them to the affected teachers at their schools earlier this week. Teachers who choose to accept the check now have to repay the advance at a later time.
Based on HIDOE’s failure to provide HSTA with a list of names of affected employees, the HSTA remains concerned the number of teachers who didn’t receive paychecks could be much higher than originally disclosed.
Learn more: Benefits FAQs for delayed paychecks
In a letter sent to HIDOE Friday, the HSTA requested an informal grievance meeting with Hayashi to address contractual violations.
In the letter, HSTA Deputy Executive Director Andrea Eshelman said, “Since August 27, HSTA has had repeated conversations with HIDOE OTM (Office of Talent Management) staff, all of whom have been unwilling to provide HSTA as the exclusive representative a list of names, preventing our ability to contact affected BU05 (Bargaining Unit 05) employees and address their individual and collective needs.
“To date, employees and the HSTA have yet to receive a full explanation as to why paychecks are delayed. More importantly, employees have been told that the HIDOE knew of the error as early as August 15. Thus, while HSTA can appreciate the HIDOE’s attempt to address the situation with checks on August 27, we now know that teachers have been financially harmed by the HIDOE’s failure to alert HSTA as the exclusive representative and affected employees,” Eshelman wrote.
Friday’s HSTA letter comes on top of the union’s initial email Aug. 22, asking for details about what happened and how many teachers were affected.
Teachers affected by the paycheck delay have reported bounced checks and failed automatic bill payments because money was not deposited in their bank accounts, affecting their insurance premiums through the EUTF system, mortgage and car payments, as well as various automatic bill payments to credit cards, utilities, and other businesses.
One teacher who wasn’t paid on time and asked to remain anonymous said, “This entire situation is unbelievable.
“Insurance premiums still have not been addressed. Nor has anyone brought up the fees that many of us accrued from automatic payments that did not clear our accounts,” she said.
“It is also highly concerning that two offices at the Hawaii DOE (Teacher Recruitment and Records and Transcripts) knew that we would not get paid on Aug. 20, and they failed to notify us so that we could stop automatic drafts before they bounced. Teacher Recruitment knew they sent it late, and Records and Transcripts knew when they received them on Aug. 15 that they would not make the cut-off for the paycheck on the 20th,” the teacher added.
So far, the HSTA has received calls and emails from teachers on Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, Molokaʻi and Oʻahu indicating they didn’t receive checks.
HIDOE says 302 of the teachers who didn’t receive paychecks are slated to receive their first school year 2024–2025 paycheck on Sept. 5, which will contain both their Aug. 20 and Sept. 5 paychecks.
The remaining 75 teachers will receive their first check Sept. 20, the department said, missing their first two paychecks of the school year. Those 75 will be offered an additional $2,000 for the delay, and their Sept. 20 checks will reflect pay for the Aug. 20, Sept. 5, and Sept. 20 checks, according to HIDOE, which emailed the affected teachers an update on Friday, Aug. 23, three days after they did not receive their paychecks.
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Paycheck delay hits hundreds of public, charter school teachers
Some teachers are missing their first and second paychecks of the school year
News Release from HSTA, August 23, 2024
Hundreds of teachers at several public and charter schools are enduring the start of the school year without pay because of administrative processing delays at the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE).
As soon as leaders and staff of the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association began hearing initial reports from members about their paycheck delays earlier this week, the HSTA immediately notified top HIDOE officials about the problems, and asked what happened and how the department planned to remedy the situation. HIDOE could not issue a paycheck mid-payroll cycle, but state Schools Superintendent Hayashi pushed for a solution to help the affected teachers.
Some 377 teachers did not receive their Aug. 20 paychecks, and HIDOE has told HSTA it will cut checks worth $2,000 and deliver them to the affected teachers early next week at their schools. Teachers will have the option to reject the check or accept it. They will be asked to sign a promissory note to repay the amount if they accept it, HIDOE said.
HIDOE says 302 of those teachers are slated to receive their first school year 2024-2025 paycheck on Sept. 5, which will contain both their Aug. 20 and Sept. 5 paychecks.
The remaining 75 teachers will receive their first check Sept. 20, the department said, missing their first two paychecks of the school year. Those 75 will be offered an additional $2,000 for the delay and their Sept. 20 checks will reflect pay for the Aug. 20, Sept. 5, and Sept. 20 checks, according to HIDOE, which emailed the affected teachers an update Friday.
In an email to the department, HSTA Deputy Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Andrea Eshelman requested an explanation about what caused the delay and what steps the department is taking to prevent such incidents in the future.
Eshelman wrote, “HSTA understands that Superintendent (Keith) Hayashi and Assistant Superintendent (Brian) Hallett played a critical role in getting this issue addressed and pushing for a solution to get checks, hopefully mitigating financial impacts. We would like to express our appreciation for any efforts to problem-solve.”
“This is a serious problem for educators who have been working since July 30 and August 20 was to be their first paycheck of the school year. Many of them are worried about missing mortgage and rent payments, racking up overdraft fees, and just having some cash to get by. They should concentrate on teaching their students, not scrambling to deal with missing pay,” Eshelman said. “We hope the department will do its best to assure this never happens again.”
So far, the HSTA received calls and emails from affected teachers on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island and Molokaʻi indicating they didn’t receive checks. The HSTA has requested and is waiting for the HIDOE to provide a comprehensive list with the teachers’ names and the schools where educators were not paid on time.
In a statement released to the news media Friday, HIDOE said, “We recognize the difficulty that this delay creates for employees. The department is actively working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and communicated with all affected employees today, acknowledging the delay and notifying them of the opportunity for an advance.”
“We are examining our onboarding process that resulted in the delay. Fixing the process and improving oversight of the process are high priorities,” HIDOE added.
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