Claimants allege years of missed pay periods and pension contribution blunders
Health-care workers throughout the former Calgary health region have launched a $50-million class-action lawsuit against the region's payroll and benefits provider.
The class-action suit was filed against Telus Sourcing Solutions, which has been handling the region's benefits and payroll since 2003, on behalf of more than 4,000 health-care workers, following years of alleged problems surrounding payroll and benefit errors.
The suit alleges the provider committed payroll errors, including missed pay periods, wage overpayments and underpayments, insufficient or nonexistent health benefit coverage and ongoing pension contribution blunders.
"When you go to work, you show up on time and expect to be paid on time, right? Well so do we," said Maureen Mackrory, a social worker employed at Calgary's Peter Lougheed medical centre and one the initial plaintiffs listed in the class-action suit.
"Health-care workers are no different. We have families to feed, mortgages and car payments to make like the rest of Canadians, and we're tired of crossing our fingers hoping our wages and benefits will be there every two weeks."
A spokesperson for Telus Sourcing Solutions told the Canadian Press the region's old payroll system was on its last legs and error-prone. With a big, complex organization, there are bound to be glitches during a transition, he said, but the system is running at 99.9 per cent accuracy.
The class action suit must be certified by the Court of Queen's Bench before it can proceed.
For full details on this story, see page 1 of the June 15 issue of Canadian HR Reporter.
