Okay so I started in the fall of 2012, at the time we had no HR so a manager at the store hired me. I was his 2nd hire. He lead me to believe everyone starts at min. and works their way up.
long story short, in the spring of 2013 I discovered (despite what he had lead me to believe) we can and DO get paid for our previous experiences.
We had gotten an HR by this time, so I went to speak with her, after several weeks of digging, she discovered he didn't know how to send in credentials or something so he did it to everyone he had hired at the time (prob 10 people), let them start at the bottom.
(only 2 of us were left, the rest had quit)
So she said she'd look into it, I stayed very patient with her. It seemed whenever she was getting some where, something happened, someone was on vacation, someone was being transferred, promoted... there was ALWAYS SOMETHING. But I as assured by many people at the store that these things take time and not to worry because I'd get back-pay. Someone told me they waited 8mo. for their manager raise to kick in and had an awesome backpay check.
By fall 2013, I finally told her I'd like some numbers of people above her, I was getting impatient. I know she was trying, she showed me emails she sent and wouldn't get replies to but that wasn't enough, it was taking to long and I was tired of being ignored.
I spoke to our union rep, he said this isn't something the union deals with.
So I spent weeks calling this person somewhere up the chain, she never returned my calls and ignored me. Holidays go by, more vacations, more excuses for no one to be at the offices...
Jan 2014 rolls along, I finally get word.. I got told "sorry about your luck, if we took care of this perhaps the year you got hired that's one thing, but you been here more than a year. we're not fixing it"
I did explain I have been trying to get it taken care of, all my managers and HR set 'their on it'... but she wouldn't listen to reason and flatly said no. She was nice, and said she did do the calculations, I should have been making about .50 more an hour and I was beyond qualified and experienced in my department, however it's 'out of her hands' and 'not going to happen' and just 'sorry it happened to you, he should have done the paperwork right the first time'
I gave up, been spending this year simply bitter over the fact I accepted less than I'm worth.
I don't know if I'm asking for help or ranting... but I'm bitter about it... Almost here two years now.... and still making ****.
What's sad is I like my job, like the people I work for, but I never feel like giving %100 any more, and why should I? they admittedly and knowingly don't give me 100%
Then don't be the "good guy/gal" everyone expects. Do ONLY what's required of your job, no more no less. Sounds to me like if they actually paid what you owe, it would have been a pretty decent amount of money. And they"need" all the money they can for UNnecessary bonuses to higher ups. Not sure if you can go even higher to get what's owed you, but I can guarantee if you get what's owed, not only will they probably be incredibly pissed off at you to the max for the remainder of our career, but they'll think twice about doing it to anyone else again. Good luck
[QUOTE]I spoke to our union rep, he said this isn't something the union deals with.[/QUOTE]
Bull****. Tell your union representative to quit being a lazy ******* and tell him to file a grievance. Your experience is equal to that in whatever your department is that pertains to your experience. An example would be if you were in the meat department, you would be paid at the 3 years of service tier if you had 3 years prior in another meat market. If they filed a grievance you could win.
__________________
My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
store management may have some discretion but if they made a mistake in your hiring paperwork and failed to disclose or fix it, it's hard to believe you can't grieve it through the union. keep pressure up.
at my store stupid stuff happens, full time people have to fight for their 40 hours.
we look at the schedule, we see part timers getting 7 hours and full timers getting 7 hours. No! the part timer should get six hours, and the full timer can come in earlier if that gives the coverage the system says is needed and they get their eight hours plus you only have to worry about one and not two thirty minute breaks. you know it's not like the part timer isn't getting 25-30 hours a week anyway which is well above the contract minimums. we should not have to continually fight this battle. it's abusive.
they already exploit full timers by handing out the worst shifts because part timers can restrict availability to get only mornings. some of these part timers are allowed to change availability like i change socks. it's wrong.
Its actually a contract dispute which is the business of the union representative. In the contract you're suppose to be at a certain tier, but because they withheld your experience you should be at a certain payscale.
What is the union local you're in and what state? I can try and help you find out all that info.
__________________
My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
I wish you the best but my contract basically says there is a limit to how long you have to get your experience pay figured out, and I suspect others have similar clauses. Regardless of whether or not your hiring was mishandled, enough time has passed that, grievance our not, you may be S.O.L.
Experience pay is not guaranteed. It depend on the store manager and the experience as well. They should have been upfront with you about it though. I would ask if they were going to give it or not and if so, when. If not, suck it up or quit. I worked for kroger before and quit. The store manager didn't give experience to anyone so I had to suck it up or go elsewhere. Good luck.
