Remember the teacher who was over charged substantially for UFT dues while on a Paid Parental Leave? We exposed the UFT overpayment that was later refunded to the teacher. Believe it or not, this member's financial woes from Paid Parental Leave from last fall still have not been resolved.
An email was recently sent to the UFT that we are writing about with full permission of the author.
When the teacher took Paid Parental Leave, this teacher was kept on DOE payroll. PPL is supposed to be unpaid from DOE but the UFT Welfare Fund is charged with making up the full salary for the PPL. We said at the time of the agreement between the UFT and DOE that all active school based UFT members are paying for by deferring a raise that there is nothing to guarantee that the UFT will pay the full salary for the duration of the PPL. Now we are seeing it play out in real life.
Since the teacher who emailed us was wrongfully kept on payroll, the DOE decided to take back their money through payroll deductions after the teacher returned from the Leave. The teacher did the math and the DOE has now taken back more money than the UFT paid the teacher for the PPL.
According to the calculations, the DOE took back over $700 more than they should have or the UFT shortchanged the teacher. Either the DOE took back too much money or the UFT did not pay enough or some combination of the two if the teacher added correctly. We have no reason to believe the teacher's calculations are inaccurate.
My guess is this might not be an isolated example. DOE and UFT numbers probably won't balance for other teachers on PPL.
This blog has been critical of the PPL deal because it is a cost benefit to the city that all active school based UFT members are paying for by delaying a raise from November to the middle of February. We are not surprised that someone has been shortchanged repeatedly. PPL or expanded Paid Family Leave are benefits all workers should have that the employer should pay for.
Nothing adds up when you look at Parental Leave via the UFT-DOE. Another evidence of a completely incompetent UFT.
ReplyDeleteWe also got screwed by having our contract not expire this past November and have it extended into Feb. If our contract came out in November, we might have had a shot at having 2 observations this year instead of waiting till Sept 2019.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew works for the DOE, not us. He stills gets his bi-monthly check from them, as do all of his cronies.
DeleteThis is an awful post. The DoE mistakenly paid the member, and is now taking the money back. How is that the UFTs fault? This is, at worst, a salary grievance, handled by a salary rep at the local UFT Borough office.
ReplyDeleteAnd am I to believe that the member contacted you to complain about the whole agreement because of this? In other words he or she would prefer to have been paid nothing during that time period?
Yeah what is so strange about DOE making mistakes?
ReplyDelete"PPL or expanded Paid Family Leave are benefits all workers should have that the employer should pay for." See Seattle or UUP in NY for examples.
ReplyDeleteThe complex structure of the UFT PPL deal will more than likely lead to more problems like this. When over 100,000 working UFT members are paying for a benefit for parents with a deferred raise, they have every right to demand every penny that is due to the parents who take PPL goes into their pockets. The money is coming from members, not the city.
This is also a good time to remind people that the city is profiting from the PPL deal. Again, parents deserve every penny.
The 10:31 comment is a typical UFT answer. You got something. Would you be better off with nothing? Not our point.
I think the person agreed to let us post on this because when we do, things tend to get resolved faster when they are out there in public. Payroll grievances can take years and the guilty party here might be the DOE or the UFT or both.
This is sophistry. You use an example of a DoE mistake to attack the UFT. Then, when challenged, you change tack and claim this glitch would not have happened had a better deal been negotiated, then you attack the defender of the uft for pointing out the obvious error in your logic, then you claim its all about publicizing the case so it gets resolved. Im dizzy.
ReplyDeleteAnd btw, salary mistakes are virtually the only problems that dont take years to resolve, and this case wont need a grievance at all.
Where is the sophistry? I filed a payroll case in 2018? Still waiting. I know a friend who filed one that was not settled for a decade. DOE is the worst. UFT are the flip side of the same coin.
DeleteI still don't understand why, if both parents are UFT members, both aren't entitled to PPL. Both pay dues, both should get the benefit.
ReplyDeleteThis happened to a teacher in my school luckily we figured out the calculations and they ended up being right. But still.. She had to contact the DOE and tell them that they made a mistake and paid her, which resulted in about 15 phone calls to get it right and resulted in them taking money back over the next 6 months. In my personal experience with any type of leave, the DOE gets it wrong about 90 percent of time which results in teachers fighting with them for months. They are brutal and can't do their jobs even when Paperwork is filled led out correctly. I wouldn't be surprised if some teachers don't call them and let them know they shouldn't have been paid . Could only imagine how much the DOE loses over mismanagement of funds..
ReplyDeletePaid leave is a major loss! Everyone thought it was such a great deal. If you are married in the DOE you are truly screwed. You have to split the 6 weeks. The UFT considers you as "one" meanwhile we both pay separate dues. The loop hole to close the 2 for 1 CAR swap was another great move to screw husband and wife who work in DOE. Newbies would not even get the 6 weeks paid leave because they would not have enough days in their CAR.
ReplyDeletePaid leave is a major loss! Everyone thought it was such a great deal. If you are married in the DOE you are truly screwed. You have to split the 6 weeks. The UFT considers you as "one" meanwhile we both pay separate dues. The loop hole to close the 2 for 1 CAR swap was another great move to screw husband and wife who work in DOE. Newbies would not even get the 6 weeks paid leave because they would not have enough days in their CAR.
ReplyDeletePaid leave is a major loss! Everyone thought it was such a great deal. If you are married in the DOE you are truly screwed. You have to split the 6 weeks. The UFT considers you as "one" meanwhile we both pay separate dues. The loop hole to close the 2 for 1 CAR swap was another great move to screw husband and wife who work in DOE. Newbies would not even get the 6 weeks paid leave because they would not have enough days in their CAR.
ReplyDeleteThis thread makes me just want to use my vacation/sick time instead of the full 6 weeks. Dropping off of payroll just sounds like a screw up is imminent! SMH :(
ReplyDelete