Don't Blame the Software
A common employer defense that I hear in contract disputes concerning pay and benefits is that the company was switching to a new payroll system and something happened to either cause a change to the way pay or benefits were being calculated or failed to change in accordance with a new agreement, resulting in old pay or benefit formulas being applied.
Just in the past year, I've heard this defense in cases involving the calculation of overtime, in the calculation of payroll deductions, and in failing to pay a settlement.
Here's the problem with what I'll call "blame the software" defense: The software isn't signatory to the collective bargaining agreement, the parties are. This is especially important for employers to understand because the payroll system, and other software systems, are solely within your control. I would go so far as to say that selecting the software for payroll is a management right. That means, of course, that it's also a management responsibility.
Management has two responsibilities: follow the CBA and make sure the software can comply with the CBA. But if the software cannot comply, that doesn't mean that the employer is off the hook for CBA compliance. If that means paper checks and hand calculated spreadsheets: well, that's the breaks.
In one case I had, the employer's continuing refusal to even identify who could fix the software problem resulted in continuing violations. In that case, I awarded the union attorney's fees because the employer was so unwilling to comply with the CBA and the settlement agreement the parties had reached.
Relatedly, I've heard a discharged employee claim that a new work dispatching system must have been glitching - that's why it seemed like he wasn't doing any work. The union was not able to demonstrate that there was an actual problem with the software. It seemed more likely that the employee kept turning off his device to avoid assignments. Unfortunately for him, the tracker in the device worked quite well, so the employer knew he was hiding out during his shift.
