Attorneys with Bennett Hartman, in collaboration with the law firm of Albies & Stark and several labor unions, negotiated a settlement of class action wage claims on behalf of current and former employees of the State of Oregon.
Bennett Hartman attorneys filed the class action lawsuit in 2023 after the State implemented a payroll system by Workday, a software vendor that offers cloud-based payroll and other platforms for both public and private employers. Shortly after the new payroll system went live, employees reported widespread errors in their pay. The State’s troubled rollout of their payroll system followed widely publicized implementation problems with other Workday payroll systems.
The State has agreed to pay $15 million to settle the wage claims. Additionally, the State will waive erroneous overpayments caused by the faulty payroll system. As part of the settlement, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services issued a statement of apology:
“The State owes a sacred duty to pay all employees timely and accurately, and with the launch and ongoing issues of Workday Payroll, we failed to fulfill that duty… We continue to encourage any employee who believes they have experienced a payroll error to report that error to their supervisor or through the Workday Payroll system so that the State can address any concerns as quickly as possible. We anticipate it will continue to take time until Workday Payroll is fully working effectively and without any system errors.”
A judge in Multnomah County preliminarily approved the settlement and authorized notice of the settlement to be mailed to current and former employees of the State. Details of the settlement can be found here. You can read more about the payroll system problems here, here, and here.
