The employee tried to prevent the salary error himself, but was assured by the city's salary department that everything is fine. Then came the giant bill.
Helsinki the city's salary mess is not going to end, even though it has lasted for almost two years.
For those on long sick leave Sampo to Arstio in November, just before Christmas, the city sent a real gift: a bill for several thousand euros.
With the bill, the city recovers the salary it paid too much.
Arstio, who works as a special assistant in early childhood education, says that he was on sick leave from January 2022. From August 2022 to February 2023, he was on a six-month work trial. After that, the sick leave continued.
Salary mess the first signs appeared already in the spring of 2022.
According to Arstion, the city paid him full wages, even if he was not entitled to them after extending his sick leave. The salary should have first dropped to two-thirds and then ended completely.
“But the salary kept coming, and I returned it. Salaries were paid back and forth.”
One of the erroneous salaries returned by Arstion was returned to his account a week after the repayment.
In spring 2023 Arstio contacted the city's payroll department. He wanted to make sure that he was not paid a salary that no longer belonged to him. He had not yet been able to return to his work, but the sick leave continued.
“From there, the service coordinator assured me that I still have to be paid,” says Arstio.
“I was terribly surprised by this, but somehow I believed him. I asked again when even the occupational health service wondered how I can get paid when I've been away since January 2022.”
Salary is paid for 60 days during sick leave, as stated in the general employment and collective agreement in the municipal sector. After this, the employee has the right to receive two-thirds of his actual salary for 120 calendar days.
In autumn 2023 the sound on the city clock changed. Arstio received a letter demanding more than 6,600 euros from him.
According to him, the demand for repayment may be justified. However, he is puzzled by the fact that there were no justifications or calculations in the letter and that the salary is collected because of a mistake made by the city.
Arstio himself also tried to prevent the error from occurring by verifying the correctness of the salary from the city several times. HS has seen the correspondence between Arstion and the city's payroll department.
“I've just been following the advice and instructions I've been given, but it hasn't helped this mess at all.”
Now there is not much money in the account, but thousands of euros have not been paid, says Arstio. He has already paid back half of the amount.
According to Arstion, the mess caused by his employer has increased the stress that he already had due to the sick leave.
“It's hard to describe this in words. I have suffered from this for almost two years, and now I don't know what I will pay with anymore.”
Helsinki the city previously estimated in HS's story that the pay mess is now over from their point of view, because errors only occur in 1.36 percent of pay transactions.
“There are 1.36 percent of salary errors, which is an extremely good result for our volumes. We send about 60,000 salary statements every month,” said the CEO of Talpa, the city's financial administration service business Anniina Kitula for HS on Tuesday.
So there are still several hundred errors.
According to Kitula, the payment period for repayment of overpayments is being extended from two weeks to four weeks. In addition, you can apply for flexibility in the payment schedule from the city.
The problems related to the salary payment of the city of Helsinki started in the spring of 2022. The reason for the problems was weak management.
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