Postal Error Delays Pay For WSU Workers The Checks Are In The Mail, But Hundreds Will Be Late

Sat., April 25, 1998

By Andrea Vogt andreav@spokesman.com

The U.S. Postal Service didn’t just drop the ball when it failed to send 2,700 Washington State University paychecks to Spokane for distribution Friday.

“This is like fumbling in the end zone,” said a frustrated Barry Johnston, WSU payroll services director.

For the second time this semester, a big chunk of WSU employees won’t get paid on time.

This time, those receiving actual paychecks will be inconvenienced. A month ago, a computer error delayed direct deposits for about 7,000 employees.

In the latest snafu, 2,700 payroll checks failed to make it out of the Pullman post office, and nobody’s saying why.

“For the life of me, I cannot understand how they did not get to Spokane,” Johnston said.

On Thursday, the checks were delivered to the post office - pre-sorted, laid out in trays and covered in bright fuchsia paper. “It’s like hunter’s orange. It could be spotted three miles away,” Johnston said.

When the checks didn’t arrive on time Friday, postal employees scrambled to deliver approximately 1,900 of them to employees living in and around Pullman, bypassing the normal distribution route.

A Postal Service truck was dispatched to deliver checks to WSU employees living in Palouse, Albion, Uniontown, Colton, Lewiston, Clarkston, Genesee, Troy, Moscow and Potlatch.

All other checks will be sent to Spokane and distributed through normal mail service. Many aren’t expected to get their money until Monday - three days late.

That irks Johnston, who took the opportunity to urge more employees to sign up for direct deposit.

“Even with the direct-deposit brouhaha a month ago, we were able to recover that day and make good on that direct deposit,” he said. “We cannot do that with the U.S. mail.”

The Postal Service’s regional manager in Spokane could not be reached for comment Friday. There has been no offer to pay overdraft charges that could result from the delay.

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