Sen. Ron Wyden, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, sent a letter Thursday to Fred Meyer’s parent company, Kroger Co., accusing the supermarket giant of “widespread and unresolved wage theft.”
As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last year, workers at Fred Meyer, QFC and other Kroger-owned stores nationwide began reporting missing or incomplete paychecks from their employer in September. The problems began after the company rolled out a new payroll system across its stores.
The Democratic senators’ letter cites “alarming” reports of workers across Kroger’s stores experiencing persistent problems getting paid for their work as payroll software issues continue to plague the grocery giant.
“These reports indicate that ‘systemic and widespread errors’ by Kroger resulted in thousands of your employees experiencing delays and missing wages in their paychecks in late 2022,” the senators wrote.
A spokesperson for Fred Meyer said last fall that the payroll glitch affected “a small percentage” of the workforce and that the company was “working quickly on resolving known issues.”
On Thursday, a company spokesperson said that “teams are working around the clock to resolve payroll issues for the remaining small percentage of associates affected by these processing errors.”
“While the majority of issues have been resolved, we understand these issues have caused undue difficulty for the impacted associates,” the spokesperson said. “We are taking multiple steps to pay our associates as quickly as possible, including overnighting checks to impacted associates.”
In the letter sent to Kroger’s CEO, the senators demanded “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 November, current and former Oregon Fred Meyer employees filed a lawsuit accusing the grocery store of labor violations including failing to pay workers their earned wages and in a timely manner.
The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555 Union, which represents thousands of Fred Meyer and QFC workers in Oregon, southwest Washington, Idaho and Wyoming, said both stores have been issuing incorrect, short or late paychecks. The union said thousands of Oregon workers have been impacted, and some employees have also reported missing tax forms and errors with deductions.
Miles Eshaia, spokesperson for UFCW 555, said the union has filed unfair labor practice charges against Fred Meyer with the National Labor Relations Board related to the payroll problems. Meanwhile, the union has been connecting grocery workers with attorneys pursuing class-action lawsuits against the grocery giant as a result of disrupted paychecks.
In October, Kroger announced plans to acquire Albertsons, which also owns Safeway, for $24.6 billion. The deal would combine the nation’s two largest grocery chains.
The proposed merger, and Albertsons’ plan to pay its investors $4 billion dividend ahead of the merger, has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and consumer advocates.
In Oregon, Albertsons owns Safeway, while Kroger owns Fred Meyer and QFC. The two supermarket giants account for nearly 200 grocery stores across the state.
In a bid to fend off antitrust challenges to the proposed merger, Kroger and Albertsons are moving ahead with plans to sell off as many as 300 stores, mostly in areas where the two chains overlap, according to a report last week from Reuters citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
–Kristine de Leon, kdeleon@oregonian.com
