This spring, the UFT facilitated the delivery of more than 2,000 paychecks to union members who were owed money by the city Department of Education.

The union reached out to these members — who receive paper checks because either they haven’t signed up for direct deposit or they recently returned from a leave of absence — starting in February via phone calls and emails. The UFT made more than 3,000 phone calls in the attempt to connect 1,614 members with the first 2,210 checks the union received. One member was waiting for 13 paychecks.

“We weren’t able to reach everyone, but not for lack of trying,” said UFT Assistant Secretary Michael Sill, the union’s director of personnel, payroll and special projects. “We even searched for these people on social media in an effort to get them their pay.”

These paper checks are traditionally sent to the member’s payroll school but when the pandemic hit and schools closed, the DOE scrambled to come up with a system for check distribution.

In April 2020, the DOE asked its employees who were owed money to come to its offices in the boroughs to pick up checks, but that plan was scrapped when pandemic protocols intensified. Then the DOE created an online portal where members were supposed to verify their addresses before the DOE would mail out the checks. There were problems with that system, sparking hundreds of calls to the union from members who hadn’t received their money.

The UFT convinced the DOE to send the unclaimed checks to the union, which said that it would make a full court press to track down the members and get them their money. The union called and sent at least one email to every single member owed money. When a member was successfully contacted, the union sent a follow-up email explaining how to sign up for direct deposit.

Some UFT members remain unreachable. If members wish to claim an undelivered check, or if their DOE check has expired, they should reach out to the DOE at checkmanagement@schools.nyc.gov.