Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992 TAG: 9203260106
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If workers don't get the job done in the prescribed time, they are disciplined, said Monty Lee, who works at a store in western North Carolina. To avoid discipline, when workers can't get the job done during official time, they "work off the clock," as the practice is known.
Lee told the hearing by the House Employment and Housing Subcommittee that he was sometimes forced to work 25 non-compensated hours a week to meet the demands of Food Lion's scheduling requirements.
A second meat cutter and three former employees of the Salisbury, N.C.-based supermarket chain supported Lee.
They accused Food Lion of changing time cards, juggling hours from one week to another and retaliating against employees who tried to collect overtime pay or refused to work extra hours.
Their comments were similar to many on affidavits that accompany 205 claims for unpaid overtime that have have been filed since September against Food Lion. The claims were collected by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has watchdogged the non-union company for a decade.
At least 15 of the claims are from employees in Virginia, including one in Roanoke and one in Bedford.
Food Lion is one of six companies at which wage and hour officials are conducting national investigations for alleged violations.
A company executive confirmed to the committee that the grocery chain has in the past had incidents of employees working without compensation, but he said the company now has a comprehensive enforcement and communications program to prevent it.
John Watkins, senior vice president, said the Department of Labor investigated Food Lion's wage and hour practices for October 1984 to October 1986. As a result of that investigation, Food Lion signed a compliance agreement with the Labor Department in 1989 and 1990.
When a compliance agreement is sought, it means a company has had many violations or the violations have been flagrant, said a Labor Department official.
In a telephone interview after the hearing, Watkins said the company in 1989 "beefed up its communications program" to prevent off-the clock work.
"I believe we reduced it to a minimum with just a few employees," he said. "It's difficult to identify it when it happens, and it's difficult to stop 100 percent of it.
"We know the vast majority of our employees are not involved, because we have various means of finding out," said Watkins. "We have anonymous surveys, a hotline and visits conducted to the stores. . . . There are a lot of ways to uncover [off-the-clock work] and take corrective action."
Lee told the committee that Food Lion human resources people, in response to the government's investigation, were pressuring employees to sign affidavits stating whether they were guilty of violating the company's policy prohibiting off-the-clock work.
He said after he signed an affidavit admitting that he had worked off the clock, he was threatened with discharge and loss of his profit-sharing benefits.
Watkins said Wednesday, however, that Lee and the other employee who testified need not fear for their jobs.
"I understand they are employees in good stead and doing a pretty good job," said Watkins. "We want them to continue with Food Lion.
"We would never fire an employee for the first offense for working off the clock, anyway," he said. "With a management person it might be a different case."
Watkins said the company is conducting its own investigation into the allegations. He also said he was not given time in the hearing "to get the positive things out about Food Lion."
Food Lion has more than 800 stores. In 1990, it earned $240 million gross profit and more than $172 million in after-tax profit. The wage-and-hour complaint estimates that off-the-clock work performed each year at Food Lion is worth more than 37 percent of its net profit.
The congressional subcommittee is exploring findings of an audit by the Labor Department's inspector general that question the department's ability to do timely investigations, get restitution for wage earners and prevent repeat violations.
The audit found that 40 percent of the back wages and civil penalties due employees were not paid.
It also found that, while it took the department on average 202 days to process a case, the wage and hour investigator did on average only three days of actual case work, said the House Committee on Government Operations.
by CNB