Shorted Detroit EMS Workers Get Paid

DETROIT - Some Detroit EMS workers were less than pleased with their paycheck.  Almost everyone in the EMS division of the Detroit Fire Department was shorted hundreds of dollars.  Friday, a group of workers went to the city's payroll office to get it sorted out.

"I was short 36-and-a-half hours of overtime... roughly $1,300," said EMS technician Corey Candy.  "It's frustrating.  Unable to pay my bills that need to be paid."

At least ten EMS workers stormed the city's payroll department wanting answers.

"People have mortgages.  Kids got to start school.  We have to buy food.  We have to buy clothes.  We have to (buy) gas to get to work," said Wisam Zeineh, president of Detroit's Emergency Medical Services Association.

FOX 2 first told you about this reoccurring issue last November.  The city promised to fix the payroll problems, but Zeineh and his guys say nothing has changed.  No matter how often they complain, file grievances and show proof of the problem to payroll, they claim nothing gets done.

"You come out here and you work hard every day, and you want to see your money when you get it," said Lindsay Wright.

"Is there a reason this is happening?  I just don't understand it and can't really get a straight answer," Zeineh said.

Straight answers were hard to come by.  The payroll supervisor wouldn't comment, just the clerk.

"We're trying to do the best we can," said Frank Harbin.

The mayor's office was closed because it's a furlough day, but a spokesperson eventually told us the problem centers around projecting overtime accurately and how the information is entered into the system.  She says to fix it would take a brand new payroll system.

We've learned late Friday afternoon the city did pay those EMS workers, but because this has been an ongoing problem, there is a meeting scheduled for Wednesday for the union and human resources to hopefully come up with a solution.