'Human Error' Bounces Oakland Teachers' Paychecks
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- School district officials were blaming a 'human error' for having the paychecks issued to 2,821 district employees recalled from their direct deposit accounts.
The mistake triggered a wave of phone calls and emails from teachers, administrators and other employees demanding to know why their paychecks had been pulled from their accounts.
"It was a mistake that we made, human error on our part," said Oakland Unified School District spokesman John Sasaki said. "It has nothing to do with our finances...Nothing to do with the amount of funds that we have on hand. We have the money to pay our employees."
By Wednesday afternoon, the district had given the money back to the bank and the money was in the process of being returned to the employees. The district was promising employees that any overdraft fees would be refunded.
Oakland school teacher Katherine Blackburn told the East Bay Times her account had been restored by Wednesday afternoon. She said she luckily did not have any bounced checks.
But Blackburn was critical of the district's management team because no warning was given to employees.
"Just not to put out any word was alarming," she said.
