ALBERTSON'S TO SETTLE CLASS ACTION SUIT

BOISE, Idaho -- Albertson's here said last week it has signed an agreement in principle with attorney's representing aggrieved current and former employees to settle a class action lawsuit involving charges of off-the-clock work.

uld allow current and former Albertson's employees who meet eligibility requirements to present their claims to a settlement administrator. Up to 150,000 current and former Albertson's employees could be eligible to participate in the settlement, according to estimates by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which financed the litigation.

Albertson's took a one-time after-tax charge of $22 million in the third quarter ended Oct. 28 to accommodate potential payouts, of which slightly less than half is to pay attorney fees, the company told SN. Both Albertson's and the union said they anticipate many claims will be resolved quickly while others will be subject to arbitration.

The court has not yet set a date to review the proposed agreement.

In a conference call with securities analysts last week, Gary Michael, Albertson's chairman and chief executive officer, dismissed the pending settlement, saying, "If people feel they have a claim, they should step forward and we'll take care of it, which is what we've been saying for the past three or four years."

The UFCW hailed the agreement as a major victory for Albertson's employees. According to Douglas H. Dority, UFCW international president, "The UFCW is pleased that Albertson's has finally agreed to do the right thing -- clean up its act and pay employees who worked off the clock to meet arbitrary labor goals.

"The UFCW sought to reform Albertson's employment practices, not to punish [the] company. Therefore, we applaud the plaintiffs' and Albertson's decision to adopt a prompt claims-payment procedure rather than to litigate further."

The class-action lawsuits -- originally filed as eight separate actions but consolidated by the U.S. District Court here -- claimed Albertson's had failed to record and compensate employees for all time worked.

The settlement agreement also resolved two other issues that had been in dispute. Under the agreement:

Albertson's agreed to modify its manager bonus program, linking drops in bonuses to the occurrence of accidents or injuries rather than to the filing of worker's compensation claims.

Albertson's said it would comply with California law, which exempts grocery managers from overtime pay if 50% of their work is supervisory rather than the kind of "grunt" work done by the people they supervise.

The settlement agreement follows by a few weeks the refusal of the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the chain's appeal of the district court's dismissal of a preemptive suit against the UFCW that claimed union employees had to arbitrate unpaid work claims before filing suit.