My husband is about to hit his 90 days and has yet to receive the pay rate he was promised. The paperwork was filled out and submitted his first day on the job, but he has been making minimum wage the whole time. He keeps getting the run around and told that he will eventually get his back pay, but no one can tell him when. He has over 30 years experience as a meat cutter as well as grocery, produce, drug, frozen, stock, etc. experience. He approached his shop steward for help and was told he wasn't a member of the union until he'd been there six months. The initiation fee and dues have been taken out of his pay since day one.
Can anyone tell me how long it takes to get experience pay and when you become a member of the union and can get help from them?
My husband is about to hit his 90 days and has yet to receive the pay rate he was promised. The paperwork was filled out and submitted his first day on the job, but he has been making minimum wage the whole time. He keeps getting the run around and told that he will eventually get his back pay, but no one can tell him when. He has over 30 years experience as a meat cutter as well as grocery, produce, drug, frozen, stock, etc. experience. He approached his shop steward for help and was told he wasn't a member of the union until he'd been there six months. The initiation fee and dues have been taken out of his pay since day one.
Can anyone tell me how long it takes to get experience pay and when you become a member of the union and can get help from them?
Here is my best advice to you and what to do.
I have been with kroger for 23 years and in the Dallas area. I have been in the union since day one. Once you sign the union contract of form to join, you ARE IN THE UNION. The area I am in ( Texas) in a right to work state and the union has to represent you even if you are not in it. But they have the right to take care of members first and then the non-members last. Now once you are in the union, they generally will not be able to do anything until you get thru the probation period first. Thay is generally anywhere from 45 to 90 days.
Best piece of advice I ever got , from a union rep, was to hold there feet to the fire and do not be afraid to push when it takes the push. Thru union bilaws there is to be one rep for about every 1000 members. They will , some times, loose site of ones urgancy of getting things done and need pushed. It also takes a little time to get something done as meetings need setup and schedules conflict with the union and company.
Now here is what can tell you about this area and what I do know from my situations. One hired in, you have 30 days to challenge your pay rate and experience level. Kroger will go back and look at the past 5 to 6 years. If you have 30 years in but nothing in the past 5 years, then they will not give you credit for the experience you would have. One other thing is this, If the experiance is with another company and they contact the company for verification, then they will waite for them to get back to the Kroger team to varify it. If the line is busy and a message is left, the kroger looks at it as unverified until the past company gets back to them. They ( kroger) will seldom go the exptra mile to verify it. That comes from the union business agent that runs into this all the time. What the union will have to do is collect any records of pay stubs, tax records and any form of proof that you have , of the experience, and then go to the company HR staff and get it corrected
. I have seen this happen many times and always advice the person to get in touch with the business agent, for the union, right away and bypass the shop steward. Once that 30 day challenge has past, if will take the union to get involved to correct it.
The union usually sets up meetings several times a month to go over grievances and the pay issue is usually the main ones. Once the company is aware of it then they will correct it and it then may take one or two pay periods until it is done. The longer it is put off, the less likely that the company will want to pay back pay on the issue.
Now here is what you need to do. Do not even bother with the shop steward at all or even the store management. If it cost money then the store manager will always pass it to yhe next level. Get in touch with your local union office and have their business agent get back with you or your husband ASAP.
If they do not get back in a day or two then call again or email them. If you feel they are giving you a runaround then go to UFCW.Org and file your complaint there. That goes right to Washington aqnd they will then get in touch with your local and want answers. Remember that the union is the members and as a dues paying member you have that right to have prompt and courteous representation. Going the Washinton rout will get you service and call backs .
SO first, gather up the past proof of employment and experience, make sure it is present and not over 5 years old or so. Then contact your local and business agent and ignore the shop steward and store lever management. Hold the unions feet to the fire and that incledes emails to ufcw.org if needed. And ask for the business agent to have your husband made whole. They will know what it means. That way it is not a case where the company will say okay we will give him credit and the pay increase but not back pay and any other benefits that could have been lost.
Good luck and remember that the union is the members and they are here to serve us and not the other ways around.
Thank you for your response. Since you posted, we have done what you suggested and still have no satisfaction. My husband has met with his Union rep and HR person. They have shown him the forms showing he's approved for his experience pay and even, at one point, told him how much his back pay would be on his next paycheck. He received a measly $.20 raise instead of the $3+ he was supposed to get; he's even worked enough hours to get incremental increases that he hasn't received. They are now saying they have a year to do this and he will 'eventually' get his back pay. He has requested a copy of his contract multiple times and we still don't have it. I found an old contract, that I was given to understand was essentially renewed to become the contract he was hired under and it says he has a year to file the forms NOT that they have a year to pay it after he files them. I'm at a loss as to what to do now. Every week, when his paycheck comes out and it's wrong, he calls the union rep and the HR person and tells them it's still wrong. They come out to his store and say "Well, we THINK we have it fixed now. We'll see when your next paycheck comes out." I'm tired of waiting every week to find out if it's right; it shouldn't be this way.
Do you have any other suggestions for who we should contact? It's obvious we're going to have to fight this out. I'd tell him to just find another job, but they've got over $3000 of my money and I want it.
Contact washington and see if the internationan will help with pressuring your local rep to get something done quickly. They do not have a year to settle it. In our last contract, kroger has two weeks or two pay periods tpo fix the situation.
Now here is one thing that can drive a union rep crazy. At one piont they was able to get things straighten out quickly with the kma staff. Then Payrol was consolidateted several years ago with theanother few regions. Things took a little longer but not much. Last I was tols ( union meeting two months ago) was that when the payrole started to come out of Kansas ( anothe consolidation methode ) it takes longer and even the loKMA hr staff is having problems getting things done in a timely manor. Seems that since Payrole has to deal with 30 to 40 differant contracts, they almost have to have a supervisore involved in correcting it as local KMA`s just do not have the same old power to go into payrole and correct the things that needs fixed like they once was able to do.
Our rep is dealing with some of those problems right now and is planning to file more greivances against Kroger to correct them again. My advice would to stay on them consatantly. That is your union rep. If they do not keep you informed that contact the international office as often as you need to do.
I do not know what local you are under or even why they do not seem to be able to gfet you a copy of your contract, but I do have copies of local 540, 1000, 9541, 876 and 1059 contacts posted on kroger talk. Still working on getting 455 and two others to post there too.
