Hundreds of UC employees, including undergraduate and graduate student workers, have reported miscalculated or missed paychecks after a new payroll system called UCPath was implemented earlier this year.

UC Berkeley employees have not been affected by the malfunctions of the new UCPath payroll system, as the campus has not yet implemented the new program. Employees at UC Santa Barbara, or UCSB, and UC Los Angeles, or UCLA, however, have been affected.

“We are concerned about and apologize for the time it has taken to resolve some of these issues, and are working with UCPath to expedite their resolution,” UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez said in an email.

According to UC Office of the President, or UCOP, spokesperson Claire Doan, the issues that occurred were due to a series of errors during the data conversion process while transitioning from the old system to UCPath.

UCPath was implemented with the hopes of using a systemwide initiative to strengthen operations systems in order to support employees with modern technology. UCPath has gradually been phased into the UC system, beginning with UCOP in 2015. UC Riverside, UC Merced and the Associated Students UCLA were also introduced to the program in January. The rest of UCLA and UCSB were phased in earlier this fall with plans of UC Berkeley being added to the system in March 2019.

According to Doan and Vazquez, though these issues with UCPath have affected hundreds of employees across all of the UC campuses, including two percent of UCLA’s 50,000 employees, 99 percent of UC employees have reportedly been paid accurately and on time.

Doan added that the problems with UCPath are to be expected “in the first few months following system upgrades of this magnitude and complexity.” Extra staff members will be available on the UCLA and UCSB campuses to assist those affected and help address the problems with UCPath, Doan said in an email.

The UC system has been working to address a series of concerns, including those from students. They are also expanding the use of loaded pay cards, something they consider a “quick, efficient solution for impacted students.”

“We will continue to ask for help from campuses in ensuring employees know where and how to report any payroll problems,” Doan said in an email.

UCPath representatives have also met with student leadership from UCLA, UCSB and UC Riverside to provide students with an opportunity to voice their concerns and generate potential solutions for the problem.

UCLA also held a town hall meeting Thursday to deal with campus-specific issues pertaining to student pay.

“We know this is very difficult for those impacted, and we empathize with students’ concerns and frustrations,” Doan said in an email. “We are very sorry about the problems associated the delayed processing of salaries and benefits.”

Contact Mallika Seshadri at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @SeshadriMallika.