ATLANTA — An employee at the Atlanta VA Medical Center turned to 11Alive after he said his pay has been unfairly docked for more than a year.
“Only way you can be AWOL is if I have left and went to North DeKalb Mall up the street and I’m sitting there shopping when I'm supposed to be at work. That's AWOL -- because you're not on the property, not when you're on the property, and you’re working,” said Maurice Robertson, a pharmacy tech at the Atlanta VA.
He explained that he is fed up that he consistently works 40 hours a week, yet his paycheck doesn’t reflect that.
“You might be on a call -- it (the system) might jump off and say something else," Robertson said. "They will use that to try to say, 'You’re not doing your duties.' You’re in the restroom using the bathroom... they’ll use that to say you’re not at your desk."
Robertson said the reasons used to dock his pay and consider him absent or AWOL (absent without leaving) are endless. With his help, we pulled his paystubs and confirmed AWOL listings over and over.
“The VA has what you call 'leave in attendance' system -- meaning if you have time, you use your time. Let’s say you might have accumulated 300 hours over a year," he explained. "If you’re running late, put your time in -- 15 minutes, 30 minutes, put your time in. Then, the only way they're supposed to use 'leave without pay' is when you have used all your 'leave in attendance' time."
While examining Robertson’s pay stub, we noticed he had more than 100 hours of available leave time, yet he says he is listed as AWOL for various reasons, and his pay is deducted instead of his leave being used.
11Alive reached out to the VA for comment, and they sent us a statement that reads in part:
“The Atlanta VA Healthcare System, take employee concerns seriously and encourage our employees to raise any concerns”
They contacted the employee to address his specific issue. And they are unable to share those details.”
Robertson said he filed multiple internal complaints. In the meantime, Robertson said not receiving his full paycheck is drastically impacting his life as expenses pile up. In fact, on the day of our interview, his car broke down.
“Pulley popped -- once again, if I had my money... possibly could have somebody out here right now,” he demonstrated.