Teachers' Pay Update #4

Clicking on the link provided below will allow you to view/download John Malloy's letter regarding the tax repayment to occur in July.

HWDSB letter to teachers

To sum up a few of the salient points:

1) There is an ability to opt out if you wish and leave the tax deduction the way it is. As such, you would be taxed proportionally less at the end of the calendar year.

2) A repayment will be made on July 23rd via regular direct deposit channels.

3) Teachers will receive back between 1% to 3% of their gross pay to date. We assume this is because the board wishes to issue a flat number rather than a percentage. (i.e. an amount of $600 would fluctuate between 1% to 3% for most teachers and we assume the board could claw back $120 per pay in the fall)

I appreciate many of you talking to your OSSTF Branch Representatives and not inundating our office with calls on this issue. Rest assured we are already trying to work with the board to establish practices that will prevent this from happening in the future.

Have a great summer!

Anthony

Teachers' Pay Update #3

We received a memo at the office today regarding the board's plans to reimburse teachers who faced a high deduction on their June pay. From the memo...

"...we are also aware that many employees budget for the extra funds during the summer months. In order to assist you, we will be issuing a one-time payment to affected staff on July 23^rd based on the tax deducted according to each person’s individual pay. This amount will be deposited directly into your bank account as per our regular pay procedures."

We hope to be made aware of the exact amount each teacher can expect by tomorrow at the latest. All updates will be posted on the website. When final information is received, we will also email Branch Presidents.

While not pleased with events and procedures which have brought us to this point with so little time left in the school year, we will be ready to work with the board to ensure the tax deductions for the 2010-2011 year can be adjusted to better support the membership going into future summers.

Anthony Marco

Teachers' Pay Update #2

We believe that the board's new payroll software, in its infinite wisdom, has calculated taxes by pro-rating "monthly" salaries. As such, we paid slightly less tax from January to May when our 8% pay was pro-rated over 12 months to 96% percent of our actual annual salary. This 4% discrepancy meant that less taxes were taken during the period.

In June, when we make 20% of our annual salary, the computer once again multiplied by 12 to give a total of 240% of our real salary - and taxed with a rate it thought was correct.

The inline image below contains information about June and YTD income and tax rates for 2009 and 2010 as a comparison.

click here for higher-res image

After the lesser deductions from January to May and the over deduction in June, the total overage on the tax charge from 2009 to 2010 was 1% of gross. As in the image above, for a CAT4 max teacher who has made $53,528.40 to date this year, a 1% difference is $535.28. We would hope that the board would remit somewhere close to this amount (pro-rated depending on grid placement) as soon as possible with the understanding it will be scaled back through a smoothed tax rate in the fall.

We await to hear confirmation of their plans, but are optimistic in ongoing discussions, we can get resolution on this issue ASAP. Rest assured that we will be trying to convince the board to get this money into your bank accounts as early as possible.

Please come back to the website for information as we get it.

In Federation,

Anthony Marco

Teachers' Pay Update

Trevor, Dan and I have spent the late morning and early afternoon speaking with John Forbeck (Supt. of HR) and Darlene Steele about the pay stub income tax issues.

From their investigation, as the calls started to roll in from all corners yesterday, they have assured us of the following:

That from January 2010 - May 2010 we were effectively taxed less than for the same period than last or previous years under the old payroll program. Under the old program, someone manually entered the tax rate to equalize the amounts deducted. Under the new program, payroll personnel allowed the new software to generate appropriate tax divisions, by pay, according to the tax code.

As such (for example) if one checked their pay from February of 2009 and compared it February of 2010, you would notice that you probably paid anywhere from $100-$250 less in income tax than February 2009.

With less deductions from January to June, the new software made up for the discrepancy by a higher than usual tax rate to balance it out. The board has said they would provide us with a 2009 and 2010 June pay statement from a Cat4 Max teacher with no additional allowances. The year-to-date gross and year-to-date Income Tax should be very close after taking into consideration our three percent raise.

We look forward to providing everyone with this evidence on Monday, but would encourage you to check yourselves if you have a June 2009 pay statement that can be compared to the year-to-date totals on your 2010 electronic pay statement. Please let us know, if after our 3% raise and no additional allowances, if the board's claims are not true in your case.

All this said, the board is exploring strategies to address the greater than anticipated tax deduction in June 2010. We have recommended a possible deferral of this larger than expected tax deduction which could be reclaimed by the board from September to December of 2010.

We hope to have this resolved by June 30th at the latest.

Regards,

Anthony Marco
TBU Acting President

Teachers' June Pay

Many teachers may have realized that their June pay is $700 to $1500 less than their June pay from 2009.

We have been in touch with several people in payroll and the Supt. of HR. We are assured it is a top priority.

We believe that someone entered an improper tax rate on the new payroll program. The pay problem has affected Elementary teachers as well.

Our position, at this point, is that any money owed to teachers for work done to June 30th had better be in bank accounts by that date. We are pushing every avenue we have to ensure this is done.

Anthony Marco
Acting President Teachers'

Teachers' Redundancy List

Just to inform all Teachers' Unit members that teachers down to, and including, 1272 on the seniority list are officially recalled as of Monday, 14 June 2010.

Congratulations to those recalled... please keep coming back to website for updates. Any of these teachers are now eligible to apply for any postings which come available.

Teachers: The Spec Doesn't Have The Facts

The Hamilton Spectator published an article today saying "High schools will lose eight full-time positions."

We don't know where The Spec got their facts from, but here are the numbers as they stand right now:

48 teachers still redundant

25.87 FTE (full-time equivalency) teachers redundant

I don't know if The Spec got their numbers from the HWDSB, because we would to know that 18 full-time positions have been re-employed beyond our current numbers. If The Spec invented the numbers on their own, we don't know what formula they used to determine such results.

We will follow up to try and clarify where the misinformation originated.

Retirement Season

A quick reminder that the District Retirement Reception is happening this Thursday, June 3rd, 4-7pm, St. Naum’s Church, 1150 Stonechurch Rd. East, Hamilton.

Beyond that we have a special retirement gathering to announce. Jim Douglas, former TBU President and Provincial Executive Officer will be retiring at the end of June. The poster has been sent to Branch Presidents to be posted in schools, but is included below with all the information on time, date and location.