Glitch causes SunLine to overpay bus drivers for more than 18 months

A glitch in the payroll system at SunLine Transit Agency caused bus drivers to be overpaid by thousands of dollars of tax payer money.

Over 18 months, 141 drivers with SunLine got paid for work they didn’t do, to the tune of about $250,000, and now they’ll need to pay it back.

SunLine representatives said the glitch in the payroll system caused drivers on certain routes to get paid more than what they should have made.

“Those amounts range from lower amounts of $40 dollars to amounts that could exceed about $7,000,” said Lauren Skiver, CEO and General Manager of SunLine Transit Agency.

The glitch happened when SunLine was making improvements to their payment system which was underpaying drivers at the time.

SunLine sent out collection letters to the drivers explaining how much they owe, but will be working with the bus drivers union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1277, to get the money repaid. The union rejected SunLines current plan for repayment.

“The union has rejected that plan, we are a unionized operation and there is a collective bargaining process in which the union can reject certain operations by this agency, and we are following the collective bargaining process to work with through this issue,” said Skiver.

“Those who chose not to pay back we will have to go through the union process, it has steps and requirements that require both parties to work through this,” said Skiver.

We left messages with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1277 and with local bus drivers, but they never responded back.

“It’s not a process that one party can just refuse to come to the table and talk about it and I believe we will work with the union and get this issue resolved,” said Skiver.