RICHMOND, Va. — A class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Virginia against Kroger by several employees, including those in West Virginia, alleging wage violations.
Donald Austin, Deborah Winston, Sharon Simpson and Lori Dalton filed the lawsuit alleging in 2022, it implemented a new payroll system known as MyTime and since its implementation, there has been a multitude of problems, including workers not getting paid for the hours they worked, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The failure to properly pay the plaintiffs and others similarly situated has occurred and continues to occur in a number of ways, including missing or late paychecks, paychecks for amounts less than are owed and unauthorized and/or incorrect deductions or withholdings, according to the suit.
Two of the plaintiffs, Simpson and Dalton, work or worked in West Virginia stores, Simpson in Charleston and Dalton in St. Albans.
Simpson was employed for Kroger in August and September 2022 for about five weeks and never received any pay during her employment. She eventually resigned.
Dalton began working for Simpson in 2014, but in 2022, after MyTime was instituted, her spousal insurance was deducted twice from each paycheck, resulting in the loss of hundreds of dollars. Kroger failed to correct the issue.
"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,” Matthew Handley, of Handley Farah & Anderson, who represents the plaintiffs, told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “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.”
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages. They are represented by Rachel Nadas and Handley; and Martha Guarnieri in Philadelphia, Pa.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of West Virginia case number: 3:23-cv-00048
