April 11th, 2021

Albertsons Employee Lawsuit Lawyers

Albertsons was founded in 1939 and has since grown into a national grocery store chain throughout the United States. The company’s headquarters are in Boise, ID. In the 1970s, Albertsons began its expansion into the northwest and California in the 1950s and 1960s.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, Albertsons continued to grow and expand. In the 70s, they entered into a partnership with Skaggs Drug Centers to create the first grocery and drug stores. The partnership ended in 1977.

Yet, Albertsons managed to retain stores in Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama, as well as some in Texas. It also had continued its expansion into the west with more store openings and acquisitions.

In the 1980s, the company acquired or built over 280 stores in the west and south, as well as in Texas. The 1990s saw Albertsons become the largest grocery store chain in the United States after buying out American Stores—the former Skaggs Drug Centers—and acquiring all their stores in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

The 2000s saw a restructuring of the company, as Albertsons companies had grown too fast, acquired a lot of debt, and were dealing with the great recession. Eventually, the company was sold to Cerberus and SuperValu.

After the restructuring, Albertsons continued to operate in many states. Essentially, the newly formed Albertsons LLC went on to reacquire the stores sold to SuperValu, as well as the buyout Safeway, and United Supermarkets.¹

Even with the continued success of Albertsons, things were not as they seemed within its stores and its employees.

Albertsons Lawsuits and Settlements

In the late 1990s, Albertsons had a class-action lawsuit filed against it for not paying employees for off-the-clock work. The lawsuit alleged that Albertsons had required employees to work off the clock to meet specific labor goals and were never paid.

The lawsuit claimed that Albertsons had failed to record accurate working hours and provide compensation for all the time employees worked. Rather than litigating the matter in court, Albertsons chose to settle the lawsuit. As many as 150,000 former and current employees were eligible to file a claim for unpaid compensation.

In 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) initiated a lawsuit against Albertsons for harassment of Hispanic employees. According to the EEOC, Albertsons prohibited Hispanic employees from speaking Spanish if there were non-Spanish speakers present in its San Diego stores.

Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that Albertsons managers publicly reprimanded any employees who were caught speaking Spanish. The company failed to take corrective actions, regardless of the excessive number of employee complaints about the policy, which violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.²

Albertsons finally reached a settlement agreement in 2020 and agreed to pay $210,000 to settle the EEOC lawsuit. The monetary compensation will be distributed among the affected current and former employees.³

In 2019, delivery drivers that worked for Albertsons initiated another class-action lawsuit against the company. It alleged that the company violated state labor laws relating to illegal call-in scheduling, failing to pay delivery drivers full compensation for the hours worked, violating employees’ privacy and sensitive information, and not allowing employees to use sick leave.

Again, Albertsons chose to reach a settlement agreement, rather than go to court, to the tune of $2.5 million dollars. The settlement was distributed to the initial three plaintiffs and the 800 other employees who joined the lawsuit and was used to pay attorney fees and state of California fines.

More recently, Albertsons is facing another class-action lawsuit that alleges its stores, including Safeway stores, engaged in price gouging in California amid the initial COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The complaint further alleges that Albertsons failed to adhere to California measures that prevent stores from pricing gouging.

This lawsuit is currently pending and has now grown to include plaintiffs from across the United States that shopped at Albertsons, Safeway, and other stores owned by the company during the pandemic that engaged in price gouging.

How to Initiate a Lawsuit Against Albertsons

Do you believe that Albertsons has violated your civil rights in some manner? Were you not fully compensated for the work you performed? Maybe you experienced price gouging? When a company fails to adhere to the Civil Rights Act, pay their employees full compensation, and charge customers fair prices, they are negligent in their actions.

As such, this could result in you having grounds to file a lawsuit against Albertsons to seek compensation. Initially, filing a suit requires the help of qualified class action lawyers experienced in these types of cases.

While a claim against Albertsons may start out in your state’s district court, it could easily grow into a national case and major class-action lawsuit. When it does, in some cases, the federal government steps in and moves the case to federal court.

As such, you’ll need the right team of lawyers working in your best interest. Additionally, these types of cases can take several years to settle or go to trial. Eventually, a settlement is reached. If you want a fair and just settlement, then you need representation from a qualified law firm.

For further information about Albertsons lawsuits, or to file a claim against Albertsons or another business, please feel free to contact the Albertsons employee lawsuit lawyers at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P. by calling us today!

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