Family Court judges decided Wednesday to postpone filing a petition with the state Supreme Court seeking a writ of prohibition to block the next phase of state employees to be switched from twice monthly to biweekly pay periods, until after the board that is overseeing the transition meets on Monday, Webster County Family Court Judge Jeffrey Hall said.
"Out of respect for that, we're going to wait to see if any time during that meeting, they address the concerns our staff has," Hall said of Monday's scheduled meeting of the Enterprise Resource Planning Board.
State Auditor Glen Gainer called the meeting of the board, which is overseeing aspects of implementation of the state's new wvOasis supercomputer system - including payroll functions - to go over issues that have arisen with switching state employees from twice monthly to biweekly pay.
Family Court judges were prepared to seek a writ of prohibition blocking the next phase of employees set to switch over in December, over concerns that their court employees stand to be shorted about six days of pay this calendar year during the transition.
Hall said the petition was ready to be filed with the court Wednesday afternoon, but judges decided to defer action until after the Enterprise Resource Planning Board meets.
"We're hopeful either they're going to cure all our complaints, or two, they're going to delay implementation of wave 2," he said of the second group of state employees slated to be switched to biweekly pay periods.
The first wave of pay changes in June for staff of agencies including the governor's, treasurer's and auditor's office, and departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Transportation, has proved controversial.
Employees - including 26 Division of Highways workers who filed an employee grievance in August - contend that the switchover cost them the equivalent of several days' pay for calendar year 2015.
Meanwhile, legislative leadership has raised concerns that the new system of 26 14-day pay periods a year will result in salaried employees effectively getting paid twice for the 365th day each year. That will mean that, once every 11 years, employees will receive 27 paychecks in a year, at a projected cost to the state of as much as $55 million.
Legislative attorneys have questioned whether that extra paycheck is legal, since state law prohibits paying employees before their services have been rendered.
"We intend to pay every dime we owe every state employee, but we don't intend to find $4 million or $5 million [a year] in the state budget to handle the decimal point," Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, said during interim committee meetings this month.
"Everybody's talking about how we don't want to overpay our employees, but what they're not talking about is employees who have a pay shortage this year," Hall commented.
The Enterprise Resource Planning Board, headed by the governor, auditor and treasurer, and including a 15-member steering committee representing state agencies, higher education, and the Legislature, is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Monday.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.