Kroger stiffs own workers, lines pockets at the expense of employees — Sen. Warren
Senator Elizabeth Warren has hammered Kroger Grocery Stores over wage theft allegations.
“@Kroger stiffed its own workers while pushing a merger deal with @Albertsons that could harm both consumers and workers. @SenSanders, @RonWyden and I are calling them out for lining their pockets at the expense of their employees,” Senator Warren said in a tweet.
In a letter jointly written by Warren and United States Senator Bernie Sanders , on Wednesday, Kroger was asked whether the grocery store chain plans to pay its workers who say they were victims of wage theft.
Kroger employees have recently filed a spate of lawsuits alleging that the company’s new payroll system has left their paychecks short.
According to a report, one union said it had received hundreds of employee complaints regarding incomplete pay or unauthorized deductions.
Warren and Sanders demanded some answers from Kroger CEO, Rodney McMullen.
“Given your company’s record of anti-worker policies, and your ongoing attempt to push through a merger that would harm both consumers and workers,” the senators wrote, “we are writing to request a full explanation of how your workers will be compensated for any lost or delayed wages, and how you will prevent future wage theft.”
In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in Virginia, one Kroger worker said her health insurance premiums had been deducted twice from her paychecks, while another said the company had failed to pay her time-and-a-half for her overtime hours.
The lawsuit alleges these problems began last year with the arrival of a new payroll system called MyTime. A union official previously told HuffPost the system’s rollout had been “a disaster.”
Kroger said in a statement that it was working to fix payroll problems that affected “a small percentage” of the workforce.
“While the majority of issues have been resolved, we understand these issues have caused undue difficulty for the impacted associates,” the company said.
It added, “Teams are working around the clock to resolve payroll issues for the remaining small percentage of associates affected by these processing errors. We are taking multiple steps to pay our associates as quickly as possible, including overnighting checks to impacted associates.”