Hundreds of workers at local Fred Meyer stores are telling KIRO 7 that there’s an ongoing problem with their paychecks.
Some say their paychecks are coming up short, while others say they’re not getting paid at all.
Unions representing Fred Meyer and QFC workers say they’ve tried everything to resolve this problem and blame the rollout of a new computerized payroll program in October.
Some workers say they haven’t been paid since last month and others are still waiting for the pay raises they were supposed to get in October.
Unionized Fred Meyer workers in Oregon are suing its parent company, Kroger, in federal court over the same issues.
A grocery worker’s union is now planning a campaign to petition Fred Meyer customers to contact Kroger and urge the company to fix this problem.
“One of my members, at this particular store in Tumwater, did not receive pay for five weeks and was continually working without pay,” said UFCW Grocery Union representative Patty Estes. “This is completely shocking, whenever we do have a contract that is up or changes like this that are made within a company, usually they’re fixed within a few weeks. I’ve never seen it this bad before … especially around the holidays.”
On Friday, workers from several Fred Meyer stores and one QFC store will be handing out leaflets in Pierce, Mason and Thurston counties, asking customers to help out with this issue.
In a statement to KIRO 7, a Fred Meyer spokesperson confirmed that a technical error had affected payroll for some employees:
“We recently launched a new associate payroll processing platform. A technical error affected payroll processing for a small percentage of our associates. We have apologized to our associates and understand the impact.”
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Hundreds of workers are still appealing to the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries for relief.