PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Thousands of employees across Providence hospitals statewide are reporting missing pay — and now they’re filing a lawsuit against the company.
Providence Health and Services hospitals across Oregon and Northern California got a payroll revamp last month, switching to a new system. However, some employees say there’s been nothing but problems since — especially when it comes to their paychecks.
“We had expressed some concerns about the new implementation of Genesis because last time any changes were made to our timekeeping system, there were more than just a few errors,” said Richard Botterill, an Oregon Nurses Association member leader at Providence Portland.
Botterill is an emergency room nurse and also serves as a leader in the union, adding that since the new payroll system launch, more than 10,000 employees have reported everything from incorrect wage rates to missing hours, unpaid bonuses and overtime and more.
“I know there are nurses who have been missing hundreds several hundred dollars from paychecks,” said Botterill.
On Monday, some employees filed a class action suit in the Multnomah County Circuit Court, stating there are ongoing errors each pay period with some employees still not receiving the corrected pay.
Those behind the suit suggest Providence could’ve made preventative efforts to test the new payroll system out ahead of a launch or even activated it on a rolling basis to different employees to make sure it ran smoothly.
The Oregon Nurses Association union tells KOIN 6 News the reason they went with a class action suit over a union grievance is because more employees than just nurses were impacted by the discrepancies.
“My understanding is it’s stretching beyond the nurses,” said Botterill. “I’ve heard of people in registration, I’ve heard from people in patient transport.”
KOIN 6 News reached out to Providence Health and Services about the class action suit, and while they say ONA’s suggestions of “robbing workers” and “intentionally underpaying its caregivers” are “completely and utterly false,” they also apologized for the payroll issues and say they’re now running off-cycle paycheck batches daily with the correct retroactive pay.
“It doesn’t matter whether it was intentional or not. The reality is: they didn’t get paid,” said Botterill.
The company tells KOIN 6 News that fewer than 2% of employees are still experiencing incorrect pay. Those behind the lawsuit say the hope is for all employees to not only be paid what they earned, but also receive supplemental pay for those who may have overdraft fees or late fines for not having their correct wages when needed.