New payroll system at Sudbury hospital launches with issues, says Ontario Nurses Association

A new payroll system at Sudbury's Health Sciences North hospital has launched with a number of issues, according to the Ontario Nurses' Association.

Dawn Armstrong, the association's vice-president for Region 1, which covers much of northern Ontario, said some nurses weren't paid for overtime after switching to the new system, while others had to get paycheques in person because direct deposit wasn't working properly.

"Direction was given to our leaders on this system because it has caused a lot of headaches for our members out there," Armstrong said. "It is not a great system."

Armstrong said other hospitals in Ontario have used the same system, called Kronos, and had similar issues.

"I think a couple of years ago, Kingston General brought it into their hospital," she said. 

"And as I mentioned, there was issue after issue to the point where we filed hundreds of grievances."

Armstrong commended the hospital for finding workarounds when employees could not be paid, such as issuing paycheques, but said there should have been a backup in place before it launched.

In an email to CBC News, Kingston Health Sciences Centre said its transition to the Kronos system in 2015 was a "relatively seamless process" because of careful planning before the switch. 

"Previously these were manual/paper processes that were undertaken by managers of individual departments and units across the hospital," the email said.

"This system now allows us to schedule our employees based on their individual union's contract and guidelines, track vacation requests and time off electronically and ensure shifts are tracked properly."

Most issues resolved, says hospital

Health Sciences North spokesperson Jason Turnbull said in an email to CBC News that around five per cent of the hospital's workforce had issues with the new system last week.

"The majority of these were addressed on our regular pay day last Friday, July 15," the email said.

Health Sciences North is Sudbury's largest employer with around 4,000 employees.

Turnbull said the new integrated scheduling and payroll system was put in place to make the hospital "digitally enabled," which is a key goal in its strategic plan.