Paydate Schedule to Change

Duke's payroll system, which has become increasingly stressed in the past few years with the addition of two new hospitals and 3,000 employees to the Duke University Health System, is being changed so more time will be allowed for calculating and processing biweekly payroll checks. This transition will result in a one-time, three-week gap between paychecks for all biweekly employees at Duke University and Duke University Health System. To minimize any inconvenience for employees, Duke is providing eligible biweekly employees with a one-time extra week's pay. This pay will go to biweekly employees who regularly work 20 hours or more per week. It will not be issued to casual labor, temporaries, terminated employees, employees on unpaid leaves of absence, regular employees who work less than 20 hours per week or employees hired after Feb. 11, 2001. Currently, Duke's payroll system and related processes, which are more than 20 years old, produce paychecks five workdays after the end of the pay period, as opposed to the industry standard of eight to 10 days. The margins for error are very small - so small that one minor problem can prevent biweekly paychecks from being issued on time. Under the new pay system, Duke will pay biweekly employees 12 days after the end of the pay period - the second Friday following the end of the pay period. Having more time to prepare payments will help ensure that, in the future, employees will always receive their pay on time, officials say. Duke has scheduled the change to occur in March 2001 - a month when biweekly employees would normally receive three paychecks. The changeover will take place as follows: * For the pay period Jan. 29-Feb. 11, biweekly employees will receive paychecks, as originally scheduled, on Feb. 16. * For the pay period Feb. 12-25, biweekly employees will receive a paycheck on March 9 (one week later than originally scheduled). After March 9, the new schedule will be in effect and biweekly paid employees will receive paychecks every two weeks. * To minimize potential inconvenience, Duke University and Duke University Health System will provide an extra week of pay on March 2 for eligible biweekly paid employees to help bridge the extra week between paychecks. Duke will issue this one-week check on March 2, the date when regular paychecks would normally have been issued under the "old" schedule. The amount of the extra week's pay will be calculated on the average of one week's pay for the two pay periods in January 2001. It will be delivered in the same form as the regular paycheck (for example, if an employee has direct deposit, the extra check will be paid via direct deposit). All employees will still receive 26 regular paychecks during 2001, plus the additional week's pay for eligible employees. The one-week transition payment will have state and federal taxes withheld from it, as do all paychecks. However, no other deductions will be taken out. Regular deductions for retirement, health insurance and other items will be withheld for the appropriate pay period in the regular paychecks received March 9 and every two weeks thereafter. "While ensuring the integrity of our payroll system is of great importance to all of us, we are equally concerned about the welfare of the people who make Duke the world-renowned institution it is," said Tallman Trask III, Duke's executive vice president. "We hope that this extra payment, and the advance notice of this change, will provide sufficient time for our employees to make any necessary adjustments to their finances that may be affected by the paydate change." All biweekly employees received a letter with details about the transition to the new pay date change with their paycheck on Jan. 19. If employees need to adjust bank drafts or bills because the first regular two-week paycheck for March will not arrive until March 9, this letter can help explain the situation to banks and other institutions. The payroll department also sent explanatory memos to all supervisors and managers so they would be prepared to help explain the pay date change to their employees. Employees who have questions about the change in pay schedule should ask their supervisor or call Corporate Payroll Services at 684-2642.