State of Illinois Chicago employee's pay docked for supposed error??? (2015, calculated)

[oldhousegirl]

Hi everyone. Was just speaking to a friend who works for the state, she found out today via an email no less that she has been receiving a step increase (for all of 2015) in the wrong category/amount - the state's supposed error and guess what? The state will begin docking her check for the amount.

What??!! I have never heard of such a thing. She is in a union and has spoken to the union rep. We all know Illinois is in a financial crisis but really?

She is a relatively new state employee, she began in I think, 2014. She began at a training rate and at a certain step that was one step higher than her colleagues. She was promised a raise upon completion of training. She was initially at step two I believe for training. When the training was over 12 months later, she received the raise at a non training step two rate. Makes sense. Now the state is saying her rate should be at step one, which essentially negates her initial hiring increase.

I am pretty surprised.

[emathias]

When you say "docked" do you mean she's being forced to repay the difference, or that going forward they're adjusting her paychecks to the intended step?

It seems inhumane to make someone repay that money, especially if there isn't a written description of what her pay should have been that she could have/should have noticed a difference for. Did she have a written offer describing what her pay would be?

But if they're just paying future checks at the intended step I don't think that would be unfair.

Overall, though, this is yet another example of why I don't work for the government.

[oldhousegirl]

Originally Posted by emathias

When you say "docked" do you mean she's being forced to repay the difference, or that going forward they're adjusting her paychecks to the intended step?

It seems inhumane to make someone repay that money, especially if there isn't a written description of what her pay should have been that she could have/should have noticed a difference for. Did she have a written offer describing what her pay would be?

But if they're just paying future checks at the intended step I don't think that would be unfair.

Overall, though, this is yet another example of why I don't work for the government.

I hear you, tell me about it! Never. In answer to the first question, she's being forced to repay the difference as well as adjusting her future paychecks to the intended step. At this point, they have not told her in what manner she will be expected to repay; all at once or portioned out. Unreal.

She does have the written offer stating her initial pay. What she doesn't have is anything written to clarify what the next step would be post training, just the assurance of a new/better rate.

Thanks for responding.

[MSchemist80]

That happened to my mother all the time with social security. They can't calculate her benefits so every time someone recalculates it then deduct any calculated overpayment from the next few payments. It happened several times and she had to get a hold of a senior supervisor to explain it since noone below him knew what the heck they were doing.

That is how the govt operates they make an error and you are forced to pay.