State employee payroll delay caused R.I. to pay more than $1K in overdraft fees

PROVIDENCE – The state employee payroll delay last month has resulted in Rhode Island having to pay more than $1,000 in overdraft fees.
The fees, totaling $1,011, stem from an incident on Feb. 12 when a group of state employees didn’t received their paychecks through direct deposit. The misstep, which affected approximately 14,000 state employees, was the result of a miscommunication between operation staff. About 90 percent of employees received their payments by the end of the day on Feb. 12, and the issue was completely resolved the following Tuesday, according to the state.
But the resolution didn’t come before some employees tried using empty accounts, which resulted in overdraft fees. The state, which agreed to reimburse overdraft fees, doesn’t expect the amount to grow much more, according to Brenna McCabe, spokeswoman for the R.I. Department of Administration.
“Our teams at DOA and Treasury also worked with the banks to waive and/or reverse overdraft fees where they could,” she wrote. “We do not expect this number to change drastically, as we are now into March.”

No posts to display