A delegation of more than two dozen 32BJ SEIU supporters and employees of Eulen America, a private contractor that employs baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants and cabin cleaners at John F. Kennedy International Airport, met supervisors of the firm on Tuesday to address serious problems with a workforce mobile application that workers fear is shortchanging them.
Eighty-eight Eulen America employees signed a petition over the loss of wages because of the Kronos Mobile app, according to a spokesman for 32BJ SEIU, one of the largest unions in the country.
“The jobs that these men and women do are vital to our city, our state and our region’s economy,” said New York City Council Member Donovan Richards, whose Queens district includes JFK. “It is an outrage that Eulen America makes them jump through hoops while denying them the ability to get information that any worker should have ready available.”
Kronos users, including wheelchair agent Ginelle Scrubb, have been utilizing the app since last December.
“I’ve been working at Eulen America for a year now,” said Scrubb who joined the delegation on Aug. 5. “Things have not been going right with the company.”
Since she started using the Kronos mobile app many months ago, Scrubb has had issues tracking her wages.
“You can’t see the pay for the work that you put in,” she said. “It’s been going like that for a while.”
According to Scrubb, one of the reasons it’s been hard for Eulen employees to keep track of how much they earn is because of the frequent requests to change their password on the app.
“The password keeps expiring,” Scrubb said. “Every two weeks, I have to change the password and it becomes harder to login if you forget. You get locked out of it.”
Scrubbs works the 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift, but if she is asked to stay one- to three-hours longer, she has to wait for the next manager to come in at 3 a.m. to have someone sign off on her overtime work — and hope that the extra hours are reflected in the app.
Until recently, there were no managers that worked from 1:30 a.m. to 3 a.m., according to Scrubb.
The Brooklynite wants to secure her record of wages and hours to verify the overtime she put in.
“I know they are robbing us,” Scrubb said. “I do these extra hours and I want to know if it’s reflected in Kronos or not.”
Eulen America was not available for a comment.
“I hope we get better access to our pay and that we get better treatment,” Scrubb said.
