FOOD LION PRACTICES PROBED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992                   TAG: 9202060058
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium
FOOD LION PRACTICES PROBED
The U.S. Labor Department is investigating whether Food Lion Inc. knowingly allowed its employees to work without pay in an effort to meet the grocer's tough productivity goals.
The investigation results from a United Food and Commercial Workers union complaint in September charging that employees worked without pay.
The union collected complaints from 183 workers. At least 15 came from Virginia, including one in Roanoke and others in Bedford, Staunton, Waynesboro, Verona and Rustburg, said union attorney Nick Clark.
Food Lion employs 9,200 people in Virginia at 181 supermarkets and a distribution center in Petersburg. The Salisbury, N.C.-based chain has 53,000 employees and 883 stores in 12 states.
Labor Department administrator James Valin said investigators found enough information to warrant a broad look at the company's practices. Investigators in several states are checking time cards and interviewing workers, he said.
The Food Lion probe is one of about six similar national investigations undertaken each year, Valin said.
The union that complained represents workers at rival food retailers, including the Kroger Co. in Western Virginia and Super Fresh in Bedford. It said those retailers might overwork union members to compete with Food Lion's alleged illegal practices. Food Lion workers are not represented by a union.
Food Lion spokesman Mike Mozingo said the company disciplines all workers caught working when their time cards don't reflect the hours. "Some people insist on working off the clock. It happens at every company that has hourly employees, including unionized companies."
Mozingo also said that Food Lion has a toll-free telephone number so employees can report anonymously any violations of labor laws. Some material for the probe could be coming from pending lawsuits by Food Lion workers, who claim the chain owes them back wages.
Two former Fayetteville, N.C., employees won the first major case of that kind against Food Lion. On Jan. 24, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court in Richmond upheld that ruling.
The court also agreed a lower court judge was right to throw out Food Lion's countersuit against one of the employees. The countersuit blamed one of the employees, an assistant manager, for the other employee's unpaid work.
Two similar suits filed last fall in Asheville, N.C., and New Bern, N.C., seek class-action status. That means if Food Lion loses the court could order the chain to pay restitution to hundreds of workers.
Gerald Parks, of the U.S. Labor Department's Charlotte office, said if those cases produce evidence of a pattern, "We're not going to ignore information."
If the investigation finds wrongdoing, officials can seek back wages in a settlement with the company. Without a settlement, it could go to court.
Mozingo said the union recruited those who complained to investigators through mass mailings to as many as 100,000 current and former workers.
The mailing suggested that some employees could be owed as much as $12,000 for hours worked and not recorded. The mailing, a copy of which was provided by Food Lion, also included a form for workers to use in filing a complaint.
Business writer Sandra Brown Kelly contributed to this story.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB