Albertsons ended hazard pay for workers. Then coronavirus cases began increasing again
With coronavirus cases in Ada County on the rise, the head of a labor union that represents grocery workers in Southern Idaho has criticized Albertsons for ending a hazard pay program that got store workers an extra $2 an hour.
The nation’s second-largest grocery chain ended the bonus on June 13, the same day Idaho moved to Stage 4 of Gov. Brad Little’s rebound plan. The added $2 had been paid to workers since mid-March because of the potential risk brought by interacting with customers who might have the virus that causes COVID-19.
“It’s unfortunate that Albertsons has made a decision to prioritize short-term profits by cutting hazard pay for its workers at the exact time that those hazards are increasing,” Jack Caldwell, president of Local 368A of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Boise, said by phone. “Our members are interacting with the public every day and putting themselves and their families at risk of contracting a potentially deadly disease.”
An Albertsons spokesperson was not immediately available Monday to respond to Caldwell’s assertions.
The union represents about 2,300 members in Idaho, including employees of Albertsons, Smith’s Food & Drug, Falls Brand in Twin Falls, McCain Food Services in Burley and BR Management Services at Mountain Home Air Force Base.
On Monday, Central District Health announced that Boise and Ada County will return to the original Stage 3, after Idaho’s largest county set a single-day record Saturday for confirmed coronavirus cases, 68, and 250 for the week (Monday through Saturday).
Of the last 323 coronavirus cases reported in Ada County, 265 (82%) were Boise residents. The county has 1,077 total reported cases.
The return to the original Stage 3 will force bars to close at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. (Bars were in Stage 4 initially, and then moved to Stage 3 by Gov. Brad Little.) The order will also prohibit public and private gatherings of more than 50 people.
Twenty-nine states and U.S. territories have reported an increase in their seven-day averages for the number of new coronavirus cases.
“Our members are very, very upset,” Caldwell said. “They’re still at risk and the coronavirus isn’t going away anytime soon.”
In some stores, many customers are wearing masks, lessening the risk for employees, Caldwell said. In other stores, few customers are wearing them. And in the stores he’s visited, Caldwell said few vendors bringing products into the stores are wearing masks.
He also criticized Albertsons for misleading workers about a $4-an-hour bonus announced last week.
“I thought they were going to give an extra $4 for every hour that they worked from the time the pandemic started on March 15 to the 13th of June,” Caldwell said by phone. “That was my interpretation.”
Instead, the company took a weekly average of the hours worked by each employee during that period and multiplied the average by $4. An employee that worked an average of 40 hours per week earned an extra $160, Albertsons spokesperson Andrew Whelan said by email. The company gave part-time workers credit for at least 15 hours, allowing them a minimum bonus of $60.
Albertsons, Fred Meyer and many other grocery chains instituted temporary pay increases in March as the pandemic swept the nation. Food stores were declared essential services that could remain open while states including Idaho ordered nonessential retailers to close their doors.
Fred Meyer, owned by Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, provided its workers with an extra $2 an hour through May 17. At the onset of the pandemic, Fred Meyer gave full-time workers $300 and part-time workers $150 in bonus pay. More recently, it offered an additional one-time bonus of $400 for full-time workers and $200 for part-time workers.
Walmart paid $300 to full-time workers and $150 to part-time workers in April. It plans to pay out an equal amount to workers on June 25.
Both Albertsons and Fred Meyer extended their temporary pay increases past their original sunset dates.
Sales boomed for the two chains as shoppers stocked up on goods because of the pandemic.
Albertsons, which is preparing to offer stock in the company to the public, said that same-store sales increased 30% in the first 12 weeks of its fiscal year that began March 1. That was a slight decrease from the 34% increase Albertsons reported during the first eight weeks of the fiscal year.
The company employs 270,000 workers under several different store banners across the country.
Kroger last week reported same-store sales increased 19% for the first quarter when compared with the first quarter of last year.
Walmart has reported pandemic same-store sales increases of 10% and online increases of 74%.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Albertsons ended hazard pay for workers. Then coronavirus cases began increasing again."
