180 town employees without pay in Coventry

COVENTRY, R.I. (WLNE) — All 180 employees in the town of Coventry woke up Friday morning to find something was missing: a paycheck from their bank accounts.

From dispatchers at the Coventry Police Department to Department of Public Works and Animal Control workers, all seven of the town’s departments went unpaid.

“It affected a lot of people financially,” said Jay Andriote, Local 3484 Council Union President. “We have one guy that’s on a trip right now that’s in North Carolina who was planning on using his pay to come back home. He’s still in North Carolina, can’t get back to Rhode Island.”

Andriote said employees usually receive a notice saying direct deposit is on the way on Thursdays. When this week’s notice didn’t come, some became suspicious.

According to an email sent to ABC 6 News that went out to employees at about 3:44 p.m. after many had left for the day, Town Manager Benjamin Marchant explained the missing paychecks were due to an oversight made by a payroll clerk.

“Unfortunately, there was an oversight. Even though the transfer was approved, the ACH did not go through,” explained Marchant in an interview with ABC 6.

Marchant explained while the issue was corrected this morning on their end, individual banks may hold the funds for longer so some employees may not see the monies right away.

But for Andriote, Marchant’s answer doesn’t add up.

“He didn’t reach back out to me, and then to blame a clerk? I haven’t done an investigation. We would like to file grievances if that was the case,” said Andriote. “I hold management accountable. It’s easy to blame a clerk, but overall it starts at the top.”

That email also assured employees the town’s bank was able to correct it and executed payment Friday morning.

But those ABC 6 spoke with Friday night, including the town manager, said they’re yet to see a dime from their hard work over the past week. “It was an innocent mistake; fortunately we were able to correct it. We do have procedures in place, unfortunately they weren’t followed and we will make sure that never happens again.”