CLARK COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — It's been an ongoing battle between Pearl Interactive employees in Winchester and demanding answers behind delayed paychecks, a story we've been covering for the last four months.
Pearl Interactive Networkis a healthcare-related call center. "Pearl is committed to providing a Culture of Caring for our employees, resulting in retention exceeding the industry average and very satisfied employees that deliver outstanding customer service," the website reads. It also states, "Our goal has always been to remove barriers to employment for challenged populations, provide opportunities, and champion support for our employees, and deliver outstanding service to our customers."
LEX 18's Kayleigh Randle shared a Pearl employee's story about his most recent delayed paycheck from the company.
Jefferey Ferguson has been an employee at Pearl for almost seven years. He says in the last eight months, 12 of his paychecks have been delayed.
Ferguson isn't the first Pearl employee who's reported a recurring issue with their pay. On Dec. 6and 9, we spoke to two Pearl employees who shared their frustration over the delayed paychecks. On Jan. 10, LEX 18 spoke to two more Pearl employees about the ongoing paycheck issue.
"August of last year. That's when the delays started. That's when you know the emails we started to get saying, 'oh we've run into a problem with our payroll. We'll let you know when we're going to receive your check, but it's going to be delayed,'" explains Ferguson. "We all have families. We're trying to make ends meet. We're trying to provide for kids in our household."
Most recently, Ferguson says he received a late paycheck on Friday after being told he might not receive it until Monday.
"The way it was communicated to us yesterday was that they said there was a mistake in our payroll, that the employee deductions got mixed in with the employer deductions," said Ferguson. "But we were told in another corresponding email that we're working on the issue and that we're working on the reimbursement, and that we'll let you know."
After hearing Ferguson's story, I made my way back to Pearl Interactive to ask why the delays in pay are still being reported. But again, we were turned away and handed a sticky note with an email written on it. We have emailed Pearl and received the following response:
Thank you for reaching out. Pearl Interactive Network takes employee matters seriously and prioritizes maintaining a positive and supportive workplace.
At this time, we do not have a comment regarding the claims mentioned, as this is a resolved internal matter. However, we remain committed to ensuring compliance with company policies and procedures.
Best Regards,
Leadership Pearl Interactive Network, LLC
Since December, we have tried speaking with someone at Pearl on at least three separate occasions. Back in December, when we first broke the story, we reached out to Pearl's CEO, Mario Antwine. Pearl Leadership sent back a statement saying in part quote:
"We are committed to making this right and to ensure all employees are full compensated as soon as possible and no later than Monday, December 9th."
Ferguson says these delayed checks have forced him to pay bills late. "When we've fallen behind on bills and we're still behind because of this. We're still struggling because of this," Ferguson distressingly explains. "We're drowning in credit card debt because we've been trying to catch up from all of this."
Ferguson says he hopes Pearl will start treating its employees fairly and the late pay will come to an end.
