RICHMOND, Va. (WBOY) — A group of Kroger employees filed a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that the company has engaged in widespread wage theft after repeated and ongoing problems with payroll.
The employees are predominantly members of United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 Union, which represents about 13,000 Kroger associates in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
According to a press release from the union, it has received more than 1,000 reports from members describing problems ranging from missed and incomplete paychecks to improperly deducted taxes and health care premiums, among other issues.
Back in December, the union filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against Kroger through the National Labor Relations Board.
One of the plaintiffs, Sharon Simpson, worked for Kroger in Charleston, West Virginia or four weeks from August to September 2022 and ended up resigning in frustration, saying she never received any pay. Another plaintiff, Lori Dalton, who worked for Kroger in Saint Albans, alleges that her copay for spousal insurance was deducted twice from each paycheck, resulting in the loss of hundreds of dollars and that even though Kroger was aware of the problem, it refused to correct it.
“As our case will show, Kroger has engaged in a persistent pattern of wage theft through its failure to correct ongoing and systemic payroll problems resulting from its new ‘MyTime’ software,” said Matthew Handley, whose firm Handley Farah & Anderson PLLC filed the suit. “The company’s failure to correct these problems is in clear violation of federal and state law, and we intend to seek every remedy available on behalf of these workers.”