Loblaws Superstore Part-Time vacation payout issues resolved – again – July 12 2023

Many part-time members working for Loblaws Superstore may have recently noticed a lump sum payment last month for vacation pay.  This lump sum payment is due to another vacation payout error. 

For some history on this issue:

The part-time Loblaw Vacation Percentage Issue was identified by an alert member from Loblaws Superstore Coquitlam 1519 in January 2023.

As you may be aware, the "Pay as you Go Vacation" implementation became effective November 13, 2022.

Part time employees were paid out on their accrued vacation pay and members began seeing their vacation paid out on each pay period.

However, an issue has arisen where it has been discovered that your Employer Loblaws has only been paying accrued vacation pay only on the pay period earnings.  Loblaws has not been paying accrued vacation pay percentage on the vacation pay earned.

According to Article 18.21 : “The Employer agrees to provide vacation pay on a “total compensation” or normal week’s pay, whichever is greater. Total compensation shall mean “all monies received directly from the Employer” (wages, overtime, bonuses, premiums, vacation pay, sick-leave-credit payments, and other items of similar nature)

Your Union then contacted the Loblaw Labour Relations team and this issue was resolved effective April 2 2023.  Affected employees were provided a lump sum back pay amount to reflect the vacation pay owed from November 13 2022.

However, this April lump sum payout did not capture the November 2022 part-time vacation lump sum that was paid out.

Simply put, some part-time members received thousands of dollars when their part-time vacation was paid out with some senior part-time employees receiving payouts ranging from 5000 to 7000 dollars.  If you were a top-rated part-time employee with 7 weeks vacation, your vacation percentage is at 14%. 

Missing the lump sum back pay percentage on this payout meant that some members were shorted hundreds of dollars.

The alert member from Coquitlam again contacted Union Representative Eric Seto to let him know that the lump sum payment in April 2023 was incorrect.  Upon followup, this shortage was immediately brought to the Company’s attention and was agreed to be fixed.

“By my estimation, catching this mistake put tens of thousands of dollars back to our members who work hard for their employer and deserve to be paid correctly”, said union representative Eric Seto. 

“I am pleased that the Company did the right thing when contacted and resolved this matter without dispute.  This member from Coquitlam should be applauded for helping his fellow union members get paid what they worked hard to earn.” he added.