Update as of Thursday, August 24, 2017

We have BREAKING NEWS for Personal Assistants that paychecks have gone into the mail and direct deposits will appear tomorrow, Friday, August 25, in bank accounts ahead of the August 28 DHS pay date!

We once again were able to work with Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza to release paychecks early because DHS finally sent the necessary paperwork to them. While this is welcome news, we realize that this paycheck is still late and created tremendous hardship for thousands of families. 

The fact that DHS has been able to pay PAs before the dates they listed on their new calendar is further evidence that there is NO REASON that they should change the pay calendar.

Sign our petition here if you have not already done so and then share it with other PAs you know. 

We are continuing to pressure DHS to restore the old pay date calendar, but in our most recent bargaining session on Monday, August 21, the State refused – even after we delivered a petition to them with over 1,000 signatures demanding that the old pay dates get restored. 

We must stick together and keep up the fight against this terrible pay date change. We will hold a telephone town hall meeting next week to discuss this update and other important information so stay tuned for more details.

As a reminder, we have statewide meetings happening this Saturday, August 26, where you can come out and hear updates. See the full schedule here. 

Until the State agrees to revert back to the old calendar, future pay dates will still be according to the new calendar that DHS sent out, you can view it here. According to that new calendar, the next PA pay date will be on September 13. 

SIGN THE PETITION URGING DHS TO RESTORE OUR PAY DATES!

Acabamos de recibir la confirmación de que los cheques de sueldo para los Asistentes Personales han sido envíados por correo y los depósitos directos llegarán a las cuentas bancarias mañana.

Nuestro sindicato pudo de trabajar con la Contralora de Illinois Susana Mendoza nuevamente para que los cheques fueran enviados, antes de la fecha de pago del 28 de agosto que aparece en el calendario del DHS. Si bien esto es una buena noticia, reconocemos que este cheque de pago aún es tarde y creó una enorme dificultad para miles de familias.

El hecho de que el DHS fue capaz de pagar a la gente antes de la fecha que aparece en su nuevo calendario es una prueba más de que no hay ninguna razón por la que deberían cambiar el calendario de pago y vamos a seguir presionando para restaurar las futuras fechas de pago.

Por ahora, los asistentes personales deben esperar su próximo cheque de pago el 13 de septiembre. Los mantendremos informado mientras cuando tengamos noticias adicionales.

Why did DHS change the pay date calendar?

There’s been a lot of confusion regarding the payroll schedule changes made by DORS. DORS has been informing PAs that the schedule change was due to an agreement made by our union. However, that’s not exactly correct. Some of you may know that our union filed a grievance against the State because they were not giving PAs 5 business days after the pay period to submit their time sheets. During the course of our communication with the State in working through the grievance, the State said that it will allow PAs 5 business day, but that the pay dates would have to change. It was not our union’s intention to change the pay dates. Our intention was only to preserve the 5 business days our PAs have a right to as stated in the contract.

We have made every effort to communicate this to the State and to explain that their changing the pay dates is unnecessary and harmful to PAs. We believe that the State has the ability to process time sheets on time and still allow PAs 5 business days to submit them. The State has had this process for over a decade, why are they eager to change it now? There are other priorities the State should focus on and changing pay dates is not one of them.