Fired Haggen Employees Can Seek New Jobs

Employees with developmental disabilities in Santa Barbara County fired by the Haggen grocery store chain, are free to seek other employment and the store will try to assist them in securing another job, according to a statement released by the store’s Chief Executive Officer.

Fourteen courtesy clerks employed at Haggen learned they were laid off as part of employment cuts also affecting dozens of other workers, as the store struggles to adjust operations.

Employees with special needs worked at the stores Haggen acquired from Vons and Albertsons. The workers were placed there under the former owners by the advocacy group PathPoint. At the time of the terminations, PathPoint said it would be difficult for her clients to find other employment, partially because of non-competition clauses in the employees’ work agreements.

But Haggen CEO Bill Shaner has released a statement saying that will not be the case.

“Our journey to establish and grow the Haggen brand in new markets has been challenging. As a result, we recently made the difficult decision to lay off members of our team. These decisions were especially painful – we don’t take them lightly – but they were necessary for our business. Employees were laid off based on job classification and seniority, in compliance with collective bargaining agreements. As part of the reduction, we eliminated the Clerks Helper job classification in our stores, which unfortunately included some associates with developmental disabilities. We feel for all our former associates, in particular those with disabilities. To clarify misinformation, all laid off associates may seek employment anywhere they choose. We have already and will continue to help these associates find other jobs, through individual support and by partnering with concerned leaders and organizations in the community,” Shaner said.

At PathPoint, CEO Cindy Burton confirmed she has received calls from Haggen representatives. She said Haggen has offered to provide references to former employees, but has not provided any direct referrals to open jobs elsewhere in the community.

Burton said phones began ringing at her offices after the first reports of the terminations surfaced, as individuals and other local community groups called to ask how they could help.

In his statement, Haggen’s CEO said he hopes the layoffs are temporary.

“Having to implement layoffs has been extremely difficult, and I am especially disheartened by the fact that our associates with developmental disabilities were impacted by these changes. We are helping employees find other jobs and have reached out to organizations that help to support these individuals in hopes of learning from this experience and finding ways that we can help,” Shaner said. “This is deeply personal to me, and our entire team at Haggen. We are working tirelessly to strengthen our business. Our goal is that these cuts are temporary and that we will be in a position to re-hire all our associates over time.