Albertsons Workers in Limbo Over Sale To Publix

ST. PETERSBURG |As a store-closing sale winds into the final weeks at 49 Albertsons supermarkets in Florida, an unsettling wave of uncertainty has swept over 5,000 workers trying to map their job future.

"Everything's still up in the air," said Maria Zazveta, who hopes to transfer to one of three bay area Albertsons not closing or get a job at Publix Super Markets Inc. without missing a mortgage payment.

Some Albertsons employees have been cherry-picked by rival Sweetbay Supermarket and market newcomer Aldi. Virtually all employees have been interviewed by Publix, which is acquiring the 49 stores.

But Publix has yet to get back to most Albertsons workers with job news. And Albertsons' unusual severance package has thrown a curveball into many workers' plans.

Albertsons requires employees to interview with Publix if they hope to get a severance check. If they get a job there, they get no severance. If they turn down a Publix job within 50 miles that pays at least 80 percent of what Albertsons had been paying them, they get no severance either.

Publix agreed to tell Albertsons who takes jobs and who doesn't.

The severance is worth up to 12 weeks' pay for longtime workers. So the Catch-22 added insult to injury among Albertsons veterans already faced with losing benefits like three-week vacations, since Publix will regard them as new hires.

"Basically, I'd be starting over," said a meat cutter with 20 years at a St. Petersburg Albertsons. "Then they take severance away if I go with Publix. What's it going to cost if I'm forced to drive 50 miles to work?"

Withholding benefit payoffs until the bitter end is common among retailers who want to keep their stores fully staffed up to the very last day. But Albertsons LLC added a severance twist that limits worker options and cuts expenses.

"We regard severance as bridging the gap between employment," said Shane McEntarffer of Albertsons.

It's a policy that's been used elsewhere by Albertsons LLC as its owners at Cerberus Capital Management closed or sold chunks of the 655-store chain that they've whittled to about 275 stores since buying them for $1.1 billion in 2006.