Employees Challenge "Unfair" University Payroll Practice

Unionized and non-union employees of Yeshiva University have begun to question the accounting methods used when calculating their paychecks after discovering apparent discrepancies between what they assumed their annual salaries were and what their pay stubs actually totaled. The mathematical formula used by the payroll department to compute biweekly salaries is the focus of employee resentment, and YU workers have been organizing to demand an explanation of the method, and if need be, financial compensation.

What the workers term "disparate treatment of University employees" arises from the fact that there exists two separate pay schedules for various YU employees. Faculty and senior level administrators receive their pay on a monthly schedule, or twelve checks a year. The other employees of the University, ranging from maintenance, housekeeping, and cafeteria workers to secretaries, librarians, and administrative staff, receive their pay on a biweekly basis, or every fourteen days.

In a letter addressed to Sheldon Socol, Vice-President for Business Affairs, and signed by the entire unionized workforce of YU, the union members spell out their grievance and demand action and rectification. The letter states that "The Payroll Department of Yeshiva University issues paychecks on biweekly and monthly bases depending upon an employee’s classification. The policies determining the biweekly payroll calendar issued by the Finance Department and implemented by the Payroll Department requires the issuance of 26 paychecks per year. Nonetheless, the Payroll Department deducts monies from the biweekly checks issued using a divisor of 26.1 percent."

The letter continues with a mathematical example illustrating the point. If one takes a yearly salary of $20,000, and divides it by the divisor of 26 weeks, a biweekly paycheck totals $769.23. If the same annual salary is divided by 26.1, a biweekly paycheck totals $766.28, a difference of $2.95 per paycheck. The total lost salary for one year, according to the union numbers, would be $76.70.

"Employees receiving monthly salaries have their earnings divided evenly by 12," says the letter, explicating the crux of the issue; "there is no extra percentage taken for these employees."

"Repeated requests for a justification of, or termination of, this practice have produced no result," wrote the workers. "We maintain that the Payroll Department’s use of a 26.1 annual billing cycle has no universal application or merit as an accounting procedure, and that its use of different divisors for different calendars is discriminatory against employees paid on a biweekly basis. The Payroll Department of Yeshiva University is acting in flagrant disregard for the right of University employees to be informed of its accounting policies and the right of employees to be compensated in accordance with negotiated salary guidelines."

Therefore, the employees "request immediate termination of the unexplained deduction of monies from our biweekly paychecks by the Payroll Department and reimbursement for the monies taken plus an appropriate rate of interest."

According to Marvin Resnick, Director of Auditing and Accounting, the current 26.1 system has been in use since the mid 1960's, when it was instituted by Harold Lefkowitz, Resnick’s predecessor as chief YU numbers cruncher. Yet this was fresh news to all but a handful of the individuals whose paychecks are determined by these figures. "I have been working here for seventeen years," said Herman Colon, who works in maintenance. "No one ever bothered to tell me anything about it. There are guys who have been working here for thirty-five years, and they ain’t ever heard the number 26.1"

The first individual in recent YU history who questioned the practice was an administrator at the midtown campus, who upon noticing that her paychecks did not add up to her annual salary wrote a letter to the Payroll Department last September requesting an explanation. She received no reply to her query, and did not pursue further action.

In an unrelated development, an administrative employee in Belfer Hall, who for the purposes of this article wishes to remain anonymous, discovered the difference in her specified annual salary and her paychecks, and called Bernard Pittinsky, Director of Finance, to ask him why. She later filed a memo describing their conversation.

"I asked Mr. Pittinsky to explain the payroll process of why employees are paid on a 26.1 weeks scale per year, versus 26 weeks per year," she wrote. "He [Pittinsky] sighed and stated ‘that was the way it had been for years.’ I then asked him for an explanation on paper so that I could try and figure out this process. He stated that he ‘would try to find an explanation in the archives but that if he couldn’t I would just have to accept it.’"

"I then stated that I didn’t understand why it wouldn’t be written down somewhere," the memo continues. What did Pittinsky answer her? "And he said ‘If you don’t like it then quit.’" She describes her feelings to this rejoinder commenting, "I was appalled at that statement and stated back to Mr. Pittinsky ‘Sir, I don’t feel that is appropriate to say... I am simply asking for a reason for why my paycheck is based on 26.1 weeks a year versus 26 weeks a year. I do not want to leave Yeshiva University.’ He then stated he would look into this and if he could find something he would let me know. His final comment of this conversation was ‘If I can’t find it, you’ll have to live with it.’"

Summing up the conversation, she wrote "I feel his answer was not only unsatisfactory but unprofessional as well." A note added to the file a week later records that "Mr. Pittinsky has yet to return my phone call."

"How the university performs and behaves" she said, "is how the students will learn to behave in the workplace."

The story of the employee in Belfer and her treatment at the hands of management soon spread through the rank and file of the YU infrastructure. All the organized YU employees are represented by the same union, the National Health and Human Service Employees Union, Local 1199. Whether in housekeeping, maintenance, food service, the library, secretarial, or other, 1199 is the labor representative of all unionized employees on campus. However, in the collective bargaining agreement between YU and the union there is absolutely no mention of the formula used to calculate salaries nor the number 26.1.

The union delegates composed the above-mentioned letter to Socol, and in the words of David Assante, a union delegate and facilities worker, "will pursue whatever further action we deem necessary." According to Berta Silva, the union representative assigned to YU, and Juan Vasquez, the regional vice-president of 1199, the 26.1 issue can potentially be addressed when the union open negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, as the current agreement is set to expire on September 30, 1998.

Yet the payroll issue has a wider impact than merely affecting the union members, because even non-union employees are paid on the same 26.1 biweekly schedule. The employee who called Pittinsky for an explanation was not union, but rather was a SAM, or "same as management," a class of employees barred from labor organizing.

Union or not, the feelings among YU employees are similar. "What has caused this is arrogance. If they would have respected us and given a straight answer, we would not be having these problems," said Natalie Goldman, Dean Harold Nierenberg’s secretary. "People should be able to ask questions, and feel comfortable asking questions in their workplace and not receive replies that are confusing and misleading. Now there are people that have gotten so frustrated that they will not tolerate this unprofessional behavior."

Goldman’s co-worker Mayra Bonilla echoed her sentiments, and stressed that the problem is not with the University as a whole, but rather with this particular issue. "I love my work," said Bonilla, whose husband is the popular Burns Security captain, Milton Bonilla. "I love my boss and the students. This has been one of the most wonderful places I have worked in; the people here really care about me and my family. They even visited me when I was ill and bought birthday cakes for my daughters. But I just want an explanation. I want them to show me in writing the textbook or rule that says they can do this to my paycheck."

When asked by The Commentator, Pittinsky explained that 26.1 has been the official University policy for years, and that it is a valid accounting principle used by the Federal Government to calculate its paychecks as well. Because a year has 365 days, not an even 364; and because every four years there is a leap year, eventually there will be a year in which an employee will receive an extra twenty-seventh paycheck. This bonus year occurs every eleven or so years, according to Pittinsky, with the last one being 1993 and the next one being 2005. The shortfall accumulated over the previous ten years is erased by the extra biweekly paycheck.

What if an employee arrives after the bonus year, and leaves before the next one? "Tough," said Pittinsky. "And if a new person shows up for the bonus year, it’s like winning the lottery."

This explanation does not mollify YU employees. "What about the interest on my money?" asks Rodney Hart, union delegate and distinguished member of the YU maintenance corps. "Who gave them permission to skim off my paycheck?"

Accounting Director Resnick had a different explanation for the uneven divisor. Due to leap years and the 365th odd day in every regular year, the actual number of workdays over a four year period averages out (after an extremely complicated and convoluted set of computations) to 1043.571 workdays. Divided by four, this gives a divisor of 26.089, which is then rounded up to 26.1. "Everyone gets their money," said Resnick. "Even I get paid biweekly at the rate of 26.1."

Yet employees challenge this explanation as well, and are demanding a thorough accounting with the Payroll Department. "I don’t trust them one bit," said Bernice Katz, a senior librarian. "I want to know why my paychecks don’t add up."