Nearly 200 Colorado highway workers swarmed the Capitol on Friday demanding pay due them for working overtime during the blizzards.

Many of them say they haven't been paid overtime since Christmas. Some are owed as much as $1,000.

Problems with a new $30 million computerized financial- management system are crippling the state highway agency's ability to pay workers and vendors - and to buy supplies such as salt and de-icer.

About 2,000 Colorado Department of Transportation workers, mostly road-maintenance staff, are affected, but officials Friday didn't know the total they're owed.

"The biggest issue right now is just trying to get paid," said Herman Lynch, a Denver region CDOT worker who says he's owed $850 in overtime. "We sell our labor to the state, and they don't want to seem to pay us the overtime we've earned working in some of the most treacherous conditions."

The problem is the SAP computer system rolled out Nov. 1 by the Colorado Department of Transportation, six weeks before the blizzards of 2006 crippled Colorado, forcing road crews to work around the clock.

Steven Chavez, director of human resources for CDOT, acknowledged the new computer has caused major headaches. He said the system is overpaying and underpaying workers.

In some cases, keying routine information into the computer is taking longer, and the system is not computing time-and-a- half and other payroll accounting functions.

"With any new computer system, there is an issue," Chavez said. "The employees have legitimate issues with pay. The frustration is getting the technology to match what people do on a day-to-day basis.

"Then we got hit with the snowstorms, and crews had to work a lot of overtime. In many ways, it has been the perfect storm that all came together," he said.

Stacey Stegman, a CDOT spokeswoman, blamed software glitches and the challenges some workers had adjusting to the new pay stubs.

"There's a lot of basic unfamiliarity with trying to use the system," she said. "I don't think that we did everything we could to train them properly."

CDOT chiefs said teams of payroll experts have met with about 1,000 employees during the past month to address overtime owed. They say most workers' pay should be caught up by the end of this month.

The new computer system, built by Deloitte Touche, was designed to replace outdated accounting systems and give a more accurate picture of how CDOT is spending funds.

CDOT's computer problems are not unique.

During the past three years, the state has come under fire for a series of flubbed computer conversions and rollouts, including the troubled $212 million Colorado Benefits Management System. Some counties say CBMS is still not working properly.

In 2005, the secretary of state and the Department of Labor and Employment pulled the plug on contracts totaling $51 million with global technology giant Accenture to build new software systems.

Some critics say former Gov. Bill Owens left the new Ritter administration with major computer issues. But when Owens was asked about the CDOT computer system in mid-December, he said it was working fine and the problems had been taken care of.

CDOT workers on Friday complained that Owens and the legislature have balanced the state's ailing budget on the backs of employees, freezing wages for at least six years.

"This new system is what finally pushed everyone over the edge," said Mike Parachini, a CDOT highway sign worker.

Highway workers

$30,388 annual starting pay for road-maintenance worker

3,300 men and women are CDOT workers.

2,000 men and women are road-maintenance workers.Source: Colorado Department Of Transportation

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