Virginia, West Va. Kroger employees allege computer-generated wage theft

Kroger employees in Virginia and West Virginia are pursuing a class-action suit against the grocery giant, alleging that bugs in the company’s new payroll software system cheat them out of their rightful wages, Virginia Mercury reports.

The class-action lawsuit filed in Richmond in January is one of four filed by employees in five states against the country’s largest supermarket chain. Allegations include nonpayment for overtime or vacation time and unauthorized deductions from paychecks.

The new payroll system, called My Time, has not been accurate since it was introduced last spring, said Horace Campfield, a Richmond Kroger employee who has worked for the company for more than 17 years.

“They try to tell you to set it up through your cell phone. They put a bulletin out to tell us to make sure our time is right. We did our job. We clocked in. How are you making it our responsibility? It’s unfair to make it seem it like it’s on us.”

Wage theft occurs when employers do not pay workers according to the law. The Kroger case falls in that category but is a little different.

“Most cases we encounter are not due to some computer error. This is a bit unique,” said Matthew Handley, an attorney for United Food and Commercial Workers International Unit Local 400 workers in Virginia and West Virginia. He is a partner at Handley Farah & Anderson, based in Washington, D.C.

Kroger, which also owns Fred Meyer, Ralphs and other grocery chains, did not respond to a request for a statement.