SEATTLE — The city of Seattle is working to recover more than $13 million it lost by overpaying police department employees, FOX 13 reported.
City leaders learned of erroneous overpayments to 900 police employees who were members of the Seattle Police Officers Guild in July. Last week, the city council sent a message to police staff to inform them of the error.
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The payment issues occurred as the city was working to pay union members their negotiated retroactive wage increases of 6% for hours worked in 2024, FOX 13 reported. In calculating the back pay, however, staff used base pay rates from 2020 rather than 2024, causing employees to receive the difference between their 2020 and 2024 rates — resulting in a significantly higher payout.
The city is working with the union to decide how members will repay the additional funds. The Seattle Police Officers Guild has filed a batch grievance on behalf of the employees involved.
In addition, the city’s budget and finance offices are creating new oversight standards for future retroactive payouts, FOX 13 reported.
“Since the City implemented its new payroll system more than two years ago, SPOG has repeatedly raised concerns about inaccuracies in our members’ pay, including underpayments that remain unresolved ... SPOG members did not create these discrepancies, and they should be able to rely on the City to accurately calculate their wages,” the union said in a statement provided to FOX 13. “We look forward to working with the City to carefully review these discrepancies, verify the accuracy of every affected member’s pay, address outstanding underpayments, and ensure that any resolution is handled fairly and in accordance with our collective bargaining agreement and Washington law.”
The mistake could cost each officer impacted by the payouts up to $10,000, KOMO reported.
