[IASHRM] FW: Payroll Mail

[Larry Herzog]

Jan & All,

I couldn't agree more with you on this information sharing issue.  Seems like an agenda item about how to get information about pending legislation out to members in a more timely manner would be entirely appropriate for our next State Council meeting.  Especially if some parties involved in the legislative process are planning on bringing their bills in through the back door.

If all concerned in IASHRM would have called their legislators on this mailing of pay issue, we likely could have gotten something that would have achieved the purpose behind the legislation, without creating another annoying piece of paper that HR/payroll people need to discuss and collect from employees.  So much for Iowa being a green state.

For instance, here at Standard, we've long had a policy that if a check doesn't arrive at an employee's address for 5 calendar days beyond the published USPS' delivery schedule, a new check would be cut and payment stopped on the old one, no questions asked.  Thankfully, since we've adopted the requirement of direct deposit for all new employees (July 1, 2006), checks in general are becoming less and less of an issue.  With the new law, we'll add a couple of lines on the direct deposit form authorizing the mailing of checks (if necessary) issued while direct deposit data is winding its way through pre-noting.  Our goal, as I'm sure it is for most Iowa employers, is to get the employee's pay to them as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Sounds like a small number of scoundrels caused a giant amount of work for all payroll departments based in Iowa on this one.

Larry Herzog

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While I hate to "beat a dead horse" on this issue, and I certainly appreciate all the various SHRM members that have honed in on this topic, John Gilliland's response, and certainly the IWD letter, my biggest concern is not only my own surprise at this piece of legislation, but also what appears to be the surprise on the part of many of my SHRM colleagues.

Did I miss a legal/legislative email update on this topic?  Were any of us made aware of this possibility?

jan burch, SPHR
NW District Director, State SHRM


In a message dated 7/23/2008 2:29:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, lherzog at sdcdc.com writes:
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Members, FYI.  Thanks for the update, John!



Larry Herzog

Standard Distribution Co.

317 Savannah Park Road

Cedar Falls, IA  50613-6954

319-277-9260 Direct

319-277-9261 Direct FAX

lherzog at sdcdc.com

From: John Gilliland [mailto:jgilliland at iowaabi.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:21 PM
To: Larry Herzog
Cc: Nicole Molt; Leisa Fox
Subject: Payroll Mail

Larry:

Just wanted to follow-up with you regarding SF 2222 passed by the General Assembly and signed by Governor Culver.  This legislation was drafted and sponsored by Iowa Workforce Development.  The department claimed that they received frequent complaints from employees about not receiving paychecks from their employers.  Too often they claimed, the employer said "the check's in the mail" when an employee stopped in to pick up their check.  That was the genesis of the bill.



We expressed numerous concerns along the process.  When ABI got legislation passed in 2005 to allow employers to require direct deposit of new hires, there was some push back by labor unions.  This legislation may be related to that success by business.  The new leadership at Iowa Workforce Development has taken a very anti-employer mode from previous administrations and we, unfortunately, expect it to continue for the near-term.

Attached is a letter from the Director in response to some questions ABI posed in relation to the legislation.  This information may be helpful as well.

Thanks for you help.  Let me know if you have any other questions.

John R. Gilliland
Senior Vice President, Government Relations
Iowa Association of Business and Industry
904 Walnut St., Ste 100
Des Moines IA 50309
515-235-0566
jgilliland at iowaabi.org



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