University of Maryland physics doctoral student Taylor St Jean panicked when the paycheck he was banking on to pay his rent didn’t hit his account.

At the time, St Jean — a summer research assistant in the physics department — didn’t notice he had also missed his first paycheck.

“I live paycheck to paycheck, so missing a paycheck is a big deal,” St Jean said.

St Jean is one of several university workers who experienced missed or delayed payments this summer on the university’s new cloud-based platform, Workday. It replaced the university’s former administrative and finance systems in November and overhauled systems such as payroll and human resources.

The Graduate Labor Union received more than 100 reports of missing payments since this university transitioned to the new administrative system last fall, according to a July email from the campus organization, which advocates for collective bargaining rights for graduate student workers.

The university wrote in a statement last week that it’s tracking fewer workers affected by payroll problems than GLU estimated.

Some of these employees are calling for increased communication from this university about payroll and payment errors.

St Jean said he was able to get back pay for those first few weeks during the next pay period. Other employees said they have not yet received all of the compensation they are owed from the summer.

Journalism graduate student Mary Burke, who worked as a reporter for this university’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism this summer, said she started work on June 16 but didn’t receive her first paycheck until about Aug. 1.

Burke said the journalism college’s business office told her the payment delays were because there was an issue with her ability to enter her hours in Workday’s timesheet.

Even after the issue was resolved, she still hasn’t been fully paid for the work she did over the summer.

“It’s really not fair to just hold money hostage like this,” Burke said. “Not that they’re doing it intentionally, but there are people who need this money on a week to week basis.”

[UMD students can now use Testudo nearly 24/7]

After St Jean brought the issue to the physics payroll office, he said he was paid for those first few weeks in the following pay period. He said his issue stemmed from not being entered into the Workday system, despite completing all of his onboarding requirements.

While he was still waiting for back pay, St Jean said he had to put his rent payment on a credit card. His mom helped him pay for groceries.

“This not only put me in a bad situation, but also put my family in a bad situation, which I really don’t like,” St Jean said.

This university wrote in a statement that it is “committed to paying all employees accurately and on time.” When this university became aware of delayed payments, its human resource department “provided guidance to all employees to address these concerns,” the statement read.

This university is not aware of any outstanding payroll issues, a Monday statement confirmed, noting the issues were handled by individual departments and colleges.

“The University acted quickly to identify and resolve these issues, and all affected individuals have since been paid,” last week’s statement read.

Philip Reisler, an electrician for Facilities Management at this university, started his paid paternity leave on Aug. 4. A couple weeks later, Reisler received his paycheck and noticed it was only about two-thirds of what he should have made.

Reisler was told by his department’s payroll office that it was a Workday issue and he received the missing compensation on his next paycheck. Still, he said the issue impacted him “mentally and emotionally,” especially coming off the heels of his daughter being born.

“You’re expecting to be able to provide for your family, you know?” Reisler said.

[About $30 million worth of UMD grants have been canceled]

On Aug. 1, university administrators sent an email to faculty, staff, graduate assistants and HR partners and representatives announcing a Payroll Resource Guide to help address payment issues.

“July marked the start of the first full fiscal year in our relatively new HR/payroll system, Workday,” the email read. “As with any new system, we understand that this transition may bring some uncertainty or questions.”

The resource guide includes a FAQ section and information on how employees can review their pay details and figure out who to contact for help with payroll issues.

Caspar Popova, a doctoral student studying computer science, also experienced delayed pay this summer and said he never received an explanation as to why his pay wasn’t delivered on time.

“I should have been paid on time,” Popova said. “It is not appropriate to be withholding pay, especially not for so long and without explanation and without reporting on how widespread this issue was.”