ALBANY — National Grid says that a payroll glitch resulted in some employees — including line crews working 18-hour shifts to restore power down on Long Island in the wake of Superstorm Sandy — not receiving all of the pay they were due.
Spokesman Patrick Stella said Wednesday that the issues were the unfortunate result of minor problems with the software used in a new payroll system for the company’s 17,000 U.S. employees. It appears to have resulted in some hourly workers not being paid overtime. Although the breakdown occurred across the company’s system that includes New York state and New England, Stella said the issues were “not widespread” in terms of numbers of employees affected.
The company is working now on ensuring that everyone gets what they are owed.
“We were able to pay employees their base wages,” Stella said. “We’re addressing some of the issues that we have. We’re making that a top priority right now.”
The new software system has been put into place over the last year, and it just happened to have gone live as Sandy and a subsequent powerful winter storm hit. The new system replaced legacy payroll systems of National Grid and those of other utilities the company has acquired over the years.
The payroll issues come as hundreds of upstate New York National Grid linemen as well as white-collar workers are on Long Island working to restore power for the Long Island Power Authority. National Grid has a service contract with LIPA to repair and maintain the system. More than 90 percent of LIPA customers lost power after Sandy hit the metro New York City area.
Meanwhile, some of the local line crews that were sent down to Long Island nearly two weeks ago will soon start coming home to their families. LIPA had set up temporary shelters for the workers, part of a force of 2,000 sent to work with LIPA, including independent contractors and mutual aid crews from other utilities.
“They are beginning to be sent home,” Stella said. “But they are only being sent back on the direction of LIPA.”
Meanwhile, the state Public Service Commission has agreed to relax state regulations that have prevented some out-of-state crews from working on natural gas repairs downstate.
In addition to damage to the electrical grid, Sandy also knocked out natural gas service on Long Island and in the New York City area. The temporary measure will extend through next month when repairs are expected to be completed.
National Grid owns and operates the gas system in New York City and on Long Island through its KeySpan subsidiary that serves downstate.
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