UC Workers Protest Massive Paycheck Violations

RIVERSIDE, Calif., Feb. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- UC workers picketed outside the UCPath building in Riverside, California on Thursday, February 21 protesting the widespread problems with UCPath, the University of California's new payroll system, which has caused loss in pay and benefits for thousands of UC employees statewide, and excessive workloads for hundreds of workers at the UCPath facility.

"This is a case of colossal mismanagement of taxpayer funds, and arrogant disregard for the rights and well-being of workers," said Jason Rabinowitz, Teamsters Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer. "The University has spent nearly a billion dollars on a payroll system that fails to pay workers what they have earned. UC compounds the problem by refusing to make employees whole in a timely way, and flouting state labor laws that every other employer in the state must follow."

UC employees across the state report having their health coverage cancelled and receiving short paychecks that have forced many to take out loans or ask family for assistance.

To make matters worse, intentional understaffing by management at the UCPath facility has caused skyrocketing workloads that force many employees to work 12-hour days, resulting in fatigue, increased error rate, and high turnover of employees.

Though marketed as a way to standardize and streamline the payroll process, UCPath has been riddled with problems since its inception. Errors and glitches have caused problems for thousands of UC workers statewide such as missing pay, benefit accrual errors, and deduction errors on taxes, health care, and parking.

"Since the implementation of UCPath, UCLA Nurses have raised numerous concerns to UCPath and local management including inaccurate vacation, sick, and holiday accruals, nurses being dropped from their healthcare, and not receiving correct payment on time," said David Yamada, Registered Nurse, UCLA.  "We work hard to provide the highest quality of care for our patients and expect the University of California to honor and value our work and delay the implementation of UCPath."

In 2011, the UCPath program was originally estimated to cost $306 million and be completed in 2014. Since then, the State of California found that implementation would cost $942 million, more than three times the original estimate.

UCPath has been implemented at UCLA, the UC Office of the President, UC Riverside, UC Merced, and UC Santa Barbara with UC Berkeley and UC Davis being added next month. All UC workers will be brought under the UCPath system by December.

Teamsters Local 2010 represents approximately 12,000 administrative support workers at the University of California and approximately 2,400 skilled trades workers in the UC and Cal State systems.

SOURCE Teamsters Local 2010