Safeway’s Peoplesoft mess: one member’s story

Recently, a member from Safeway showed the union their record of how Safeway’s PeopleSoft payroll program has managed to foul up the member’s personal payroll records for months now. Sick bank, vacation pay, and ATO have all been affected by Safeway’s incompetence.

The member’s information is presented below as a reminder to Safeway members about the importance of checking your paystubs to make sure you catch any errors Safeway has made – and Safeway’s made a lot of errors since last summer!

Problems with payroll (as reported by member to Safeway):

1. The week ending Aug. 29th, my ATO was correct, at –4.
2. I had one week of holidays from August 30 - September 5, for which I wasn't paid in advance. I FINALLY received my holiday pay on September 11, however I wasn't credited with 4 hours ATO. My ATO balance remained at -4, rather than advancing to a balance of 0.
3. My ATO bank continued to show 4 hours less than it actually was until the week of November 15 - 21. I worked 40 hours that week, but my ATO bank was REDUCED by 4 hours instead of GAINING 4 hours. This error meant a net loss of 8 hours.
4. Coupled with the -4 hours in point 1, my ATO bank continues to be 12 hours less than it SHOULD be. My January 28 pay stub (covering Jan. 17-23) shows my ATO at 28 hours, rather than the proper total of 40 hours.
5. On my December 31 pay stub (covering Dec. 20-26) my sick time balance was 132 hours.

This balance is wrong.

Although I don't know WHEN my sick pay balance was messed up, I know FOR CERTAIN that it was.

Every January for approximately the last decade, I have received the maximum sick payout of 48 hours, with my bank then being reduced to 96 hours. That was the case in January of 2009. I was never sick in 2009, so obviously I should have been paid out for 48 hours, rather than the 40 hours pay that I received.

6) I also I changed my mailing address, but the company's change of address contained a typo. Despite several requests, Safeway has not fixed their error. I am concerned that important paperwork (T4s, etc.) may be misdirected.

I have informed my store manager of each of these errors as they occurred. In every case the store manager submitted the appropriate information to payroll and asked that the mistakes be corrected. I appreciate his efforts, but I believe these problems are beyond his control.

I have been patient for 5 months, but my patience is now exhausted.

I DO NOT want any more excuses from Safeway that this is a PeopleSoft issue.

I DO NOT want any more promises or delays.

I WANT my ATO credited with the missing 12 hours and I WANT my missing 8 hours sick payout !!! 

As I have lost all confidence that Safeway intends to resolve my issues on their own, I am requesting the union's help in these matters.

I have retained all records to verify my claims.”

Sadly, this member’s experience with Safeway’s Peoplesoft program is all too familiar for many, if not most Safeway members. As previously reported, the union has stepped in to deal with the unbelievably huge number of errors caused by Safeway’s payroll program since last summer, and this issue will be the subject of a mediation-arbitration hearing on February 17.