Update: Tuesday, May 13, 2014
U.S. Bank has apologized to state of Alaska employees whose paychecks were delayed due to a company error.
Department of Administration Commissioner Curtis Thayer forwarded a letter of apology Tuesday to the 15,000 employees affected by the glitch. The letter said it was an “isolated incident, and that U.S. Bank has taken proper steps to ensure this will not recur in the future.”
Thayer also said the department will assist any state workers that “experienced hardship” due to the delay. U.S. Bank said it would cover any banking fees or penalties resulting from the late deposits.
Thayer said the administration department has received numerous confirmations that the direct deposits were made Tuesday morning to employees’ personal accounts.
Original story: Monday, May 12, 2014
About 15,000 state of Alaska employees will wait another day for their paychecks, due to a banking glitch.
Direct deposits were not processed as expected by U.S. Bank on Monday, according to the Administration Department. Spokesman Andy Mills says the deposits are expected to be complete by Tuesday morning.
He says the state transmitted the payroll information to U.S. Bank on Friday, and the error was made by the bank.
U.S. Bank is a new vendor for the state and this is first time the company has processed the direct deposits. Wells Fargo was the previous vendor.
Mills calls it a big disappointment that U.S. Bank couldn’t get it right the first time.
“While our folks processed and did their portion of this payroll transmittal information, U.S. Bank did not complete their part and we’re looking to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Mills says.
State workers may end up with fees on their personal bank accounts due to the problem, he says, which will be U.S. Bank’s responsibility.
“U.S. Bank has confirmed that they will be covering employee banking fees that are incurred from this error that they created and we’re going to hold them to that.”
Employees in every agency of the executive, legislative and the judicial branches of government statewide are affected.
