Lawsuit: WVU Medical Underpaid Workers Following Kronos Data Breach

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A proposed class and collective action claims that West Virginia University Medical Corporation has failed to pay employees proper wages in the wake of a data breach that compromised its timekeeping and payroll system.

According to the 14-page lawsuit, the December 2021 ransomware hack of the Kronos timekeeping and payroll system prevented WVU Medical from properly tracking workers’ hours for the purposes of calculating regular wages and overtime. Per the case, the defendant addressed the problem by instructing employees to manually record their hours so a pay correction could be issued at a later time.

The lawsuit alleges, however, that WVU Medical decided not to use those records and instead paid workers based on the amount of wages they received for the pay period ending on December 3, 2021, just prior to the hack. According to the plaintiff, who worked as an administrative assistant/behavioral health technician at a Weston, West Virginia facility until March 1, 2022, many employees were underpaid as a result of the defendant’s pay conduct.

“The method implemented by WVU Medical to address the Kronos hack caused Plaintiff and the Putative Class Members to have performed work for which they were not compensated, and further created a miscalculation of their regular rate(s) of pay for purposes of calculating their overtime compensation each workweek,” the complaint states. “As a result, WVU Medical’s hourly employees were not paid for all hours worked, and/or were not paid the proper overtime premium after the onset of the Kronos hack.”

The lawsuit contends that although WVU Medical eventually paid its workers after reviewing their manually recorded hours, the delay “resulted in late and/or insufficient payment of wages owed” in violation of state and federal laws.

“WVU Medical pushed the cost of the Kronos hack onto the most economically vulnerable people in its workforce; its hourly employees who rely on the full and timely payment of their wages to make ends meet,” the complaint scathes.

The lawsuit looks to represent current and former hourly employees who were employed by WVU Medical anywhere in the U.S. from November 28, 2021 through the final disposition in this matter and have been subjected to the same allegedly “illegal pay system” implemented by the defendant to address the Kronos hack.

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