California Workers Sue Albertson's Stores.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 19, 1996--Ten current and former Albertson's employees filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday in federal district court here seeking back overtime pay from the nation's fourth largest grocery chain, it was announced today at a 10:30 a.m. news conference outside Albertson's offices, 200 N. Puente, Brea.

(Editors: Three Albertson's employees will join union officials at the news conference. Two are plaintiffs, Justice and Goni.)

The California employees' action follows by one week a similar suit filed in Washington State court. Both suits are financially supported by their union, the 1.4 million member United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which represents some 31,000 Albertson's employees nationwide.

The union-backed actions were both filed after Albertson's, which has about 200 stores in California, filed suit Sept. 9 in federal court in Idaho seeking to bar union-represented employees from "filing or initiating" such actions without "first exhaust(ing) the grievance-arbitration" procedure in their union contracts.

State and federal laws allow workers to recover wages going back years, union officials say, but Albertson's is trying to limit backpay to weeks or months and to avoid the damages for repeat and willful violations provided by law. Union attorneys believe there is not legal basis for Albertson's to deny its employees their right to seek better remedies under state or federal law.

UFCW Executive Vice Presidents Carl C. Huber and David T. Barry blasted Albertson's for "seeking to deny these better remedies to its employees," and the union last week filed an unfair labor practice charge against the chain with the National Labor Relations Board for unlawful interference with the employees' rights to engage in "activity protected by labor law.

"It is more than ironic that Albertson's, which has systematically sought to weaken and undermine the grievance procedure, now tries to tell employees that is the only way to address claims for unpaid wages earned for working off the clock," Huber and Barry wrote in a letter mailed last Friday to the UFCW's Albertson's members. "Albertson's has created conditions that foster work off the clock throughout its stores in California and in other states where it does business," the suit alleges. "This unlawful conduct by Albertson's has not been isolated and sporadic, but rather it has been repeated and frequent."

More than 1,500 current and former Albertson's workers have given "declarations under penalty of perjury," the suit states, about working off the clock or other work-related problems. This is five times the 300 declarations from Food Lion employees that the UFCW gave the U.S. Department of Labor leading to a 1993 finding that the chain owed $16.2 million in backpay and fines for working employees off the clock.

(Note to reporters: The Aug. 26, 1996 edition of Supermarket News, a trade weekly, quotes a vice president of Saloman Bros., Jonathan Ziegler, as saying: "I sort of describe (Albertson's) as a glorified Food Lion in that they are really focused on keeping the labor (costs) down...")

In seeking an injunction prohibiting Albertson's from retaliating against employees who report working off the clock, the suit insists that "(m)any other employees" have said they would make similar claims, but fear Albertson's will retaliate against them. The suit describes how Albertson's cuts scheduled work hours, reduces or eliminates bonuses or those of their managers, denies career development opportunities (including promotion to managerial posts), or fires employees who report off-the-clock work.

The UFCW is investigating Albertson's practices in other states, including Texas and Florida, where it competes with Food Lion. Both use the same Washington, D.C. law firm, Akin Gump, which advised Food Lion in an unsuccessful defense against UFCW off-the- clock work claims and is named as counsel in Albertson's suit against the UFCW. Like the Washington suit, the California action alleges the grocer has a "pattern and practice of attempting to shield itself from liability for unlawful employment practices by maintaining written policies that purport to forbid the unlawful practices, while at the same time maintaining conditions that foster the unlawful practices and permitting the unlawful practices to occur unchecked so long as management believes it can claim ignorance of the occurrence."

Among such practices described are: (1) discouraging employees from reporting job-related injuries or illnesses and making workers' compensation claims; (2) not accommodating employees with disabilities; (3) encouraging employees to ignore work-related injuries and illnesses or to make claims for benefits that are less advantageous for the worker and less costly for Albertson's; (4) discouraging and preventing employees from taking rest breaks that are required by state law.

The named plaintiffs are:

-- Martin Rudee Gloege, a former dairy manager and night manager who worked in Albertson's Santa Rosa, Chico, Fairfield and Napa stores until earlier this year. Gloege was told by his store director not to punch out when working outside his regular shifts so that if union representatives visited the store they wouldn't know he was working off the clock. The store director told him that the bookkeeper would later "correct" the time records to reflect only work time during his scheduled shifts. (Gloege can be contacted at 707/279-1366.)

-- Karen Burglund, a checker in the Ukiah store, tore a rotator cuff in July while checking, one day after lifting heavy milk containers too quickly in order to complete her assignments, without overtime. Her store director asked her to continue working another four hours checking and stocking merchandise. She recently underwent surgery to repair the injury. "While Ms. Burglund was performing substantial work for Albertson's off the clock," according to the complaint, "Albertson's refused to schedule her one month for sufficient hours to maintain her medical coverage." (Burglund's number is 707/463-6969.)

-- Jeffrey Barnes, as "third man" on the closing shift in Napa, was told by management to give the store a "grand opening" appearance every morning without recording overtime. His request for a schedule change so he could coach a Little League team went unanswered, as did his 1994 complaint to Labor Relations "he was given too much work to accomplish and not enough scheduled work time in which to complete the work." Five days after filing a second workers' compensation claim in May 1995, he was fired when Albertson's falsely accused him of making a sexually suggestive statement in the presence of a customer. (Barnes can be reached at 707/557-8553.)

-- Dave Matthias, a cashier/stocker in the Santa Rosa store from 1983 to 1995, was "repeatedly told" that if he couldn't get all the work done, Albertson's "would get others to replace him." His managers told him he should "punch out and continue working until he had completed" all his tasks. Like many clerks in his store, he worked through rest and lunch breaks required by California law.

-- Debra Landucci, currently a customer service clerk, worked as a bakery manager in the Rohnert Park store in 1994-95. She was scheduled off on Sunday and Monday, but ordered to have her ordering completed by 9 a.m. on Tuesday when she was scheduled to begin work. "Even the division manager and division vice president of Albertson's know Ms. Landucci and about her work off the clock," the suit explains. "Once while talking business with one of them, Ms. Landucci explained that she had to punch out so as to avoid recording overtime and would come right back. He responded approvingly."

-- June Molseed began working at Albertson's Petaluma store in 1993 and currently is on disability from her position as bakery manager in Rohnert Park, and would routinely come in before her shift to get work done. One day she didn't report to work until her scheduled shift was to begin, only to find a division representative "irate that all required tasks had not been completed before 6 a.m.," the complaint observes. When the division representative warned her about punching out for lunch and continuing working, "he directed her to keep working through lunch on clean-up tasks." She became disabled in January "due to the physical stress of her job duties at Albertson's," which included working up to 30 hours per week off the clock and at home.

-- Ralph Justice is a meat cutter who had worked in about 30 different stores in California. "In approximately 1995," the complaint states, "Mr. Justice entered management training, in which Albertson's managers taught him to reduce labor costs by overloading his subordinates with more work than they can perform in their scheduled work hours and telling them they may not record overtime." The suit notes his observation that "all managers were expected to work off the clock, and those who were promoted had done so." (Justice's number is 714/777-4316.)

-- Jason Farrel, a Sacramento employee, "asked his manager how he was supposed to complete the tasks without working overtime," the suit claims, and "was told to figure it out." His store director told him that if he wanted "to move up" he had to work off the clock. (Farrel's number is 916/481-6068.)

-- Todd Goni, who began in the Blythe store at age 19, is now disabled as a result of working at Albertson's. The 26-year-old father of two daughters was admitted to a hospital earlier this year for major depression, following his hip replacement surgery, and was put under a suicide watch. He broke a hip in July 1994 "while hurrying to unload a pallet of rock salt." Goni had complained to managers about there not being enough time to complete his work, but was told he had to get the tasks done without recording overtime or they would reduce his hours or replace him. On the day he broke his hip, Goni was told to "finish the load or clock out and never come back," the suit explains, so he worked 13 more days with a broken hip until collapsing at a checkstand. The suit claims his "store director told him he should report that he had injured himself at home." Goni also worked through scheduled lunch breaks and after his shift, but when he failed to punch out for lunch, "the bookkeeper altered the time card so that he would not be paid for the time." (Goni's phone number is 619/921-3048.)

-- John Lee quit earlier this month as bakery manager in Roseville, after he told his store director in August "he would no longer work off the clock," the suit states. The suit describes what Lee calls the "no win" situation for Albertson's employees: "If the work Albertson's requires an employee to perform takes longer than the scheduled shift and is not completed, then Albertson's disciplines the employee for poor job performance; if the employee records the time in excess of eight hours needed to complete the work, then Albertson's disciplines the employee for working unauthorized overtime. The employee's only alternative is to work off the clock and provide Albertson's with 'free labor.'"

The employee suit seeks back pay, compensatory damages and an injunction requiring Albertson's to pay employees for all time worked, keep accurate time records, "cease and desist" from threatening to discipline or discharge employees who make claims and provide legally-required rest breaks.

Copies of the suit are available from Bleiweis Communications, 818/591-7480.

CONTACT: United Food and Commercial Workers Union

Greg Denier, 202/223-3111

Joe Peterson, 206/223-0344 ext. 243