Local Haggen grocery store employees who are set to be out of a job on or by Nov. 24 — two days before Thanksgiving — were told in store closure and layoff notices they won’t receive separation packages and might not be paid for unused vacation time.

Because the Bellingham, Wash.-based grocery chain is going through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy court process, Haggen didn’t guarantee employees at the more than 100 soon-to-close stores would see those benefits.

Haggen has asked the Delaware court to allow the company to pay its employees time earned for sick days and accrued vacation, Haggen spokeswoman Deborah Pleva said.

She said all employees at closing stores — including the six in Santa Barbara County — received notice they will be paid through Nov. 24 (as long as they haven’t resigned or been terminated for cause) regardless of when their store closes.

“The close date for stores varies,” she said of the liquidation process.

Haggen filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in September to maintain operations and to find buyers for some of the 146 stores it picked up across five states from AB Acquisition LLC and Safeway Inc., the entity created when Safeway (owner of Vons) merged with Albertsons.

After growing from 18 to 164 stores and struggling to find footing, the chain announced plans to focus around just 37 stores in Washington and Oregon.

Bankruptcy court specifics won’t be determined for at least another month, and Pleva couldn’t say when employees would find out about payouts.

She wasn’t sure if that would come before closing stores go up for auction.

Los Angeles-based Smart & Final has shown interest in 28 stores in California and Nevada, including the former Vons at 850 Linden Ave. in Carpinteria and the former Albertsons at 3943 State St. in Santa Barbara.

No word from representatives on whether Smart & Final would hire some former Haggen employees, but Gelson’s Markets has shown that interest for eight stores it’s eyeing in California, the closest of which is in Thousand Oaks.

Like Albertsons and Vons, Gelson’s employees are part of a union, but employees at Smart & Final’s 250 grocery and foodservice stores are not.

UFCW LOCAL 770, which represents 29,000 Los Angeles area workers in the retail food, meat, drug store and food processing industries, put Smart & Final on its “do not patronize” list for that reason.

That union, which has a Santa Barbara office, is encouraging Haggen employees to apply for open positions at Vons and Albertsons, where each store will hire based on seniority and performance. 

Once hired, all seniority and benefits will be restored, the union said in an announcement to affected workers.

The Albertsons on Calle Real in Goleta has already re-hired some laid-off Haggen employees, and both Vons and Albertsons plan to hire more in coming weeks, said company spokesman Carlos Illingworth.

“We have been and continue to be actively engaged in the rehiring of former Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions employees that have expressed interest in returning to our company,” he said in a statement.

“We are currently hiring former employees and expect to welcome back many more in the weeks and months ahead, as we fill open positions to meet the needs of our business. We are giving our former employees every consideration possible as we work through the process and have agreed with the union that all returning employees will retain their seniority.”

Haggen is requesting a court hearing next week to determine global store bid procedures, which could include interested parties notifying the court no later than Oct. 26 and submitting bids in time for an auction Nov. 9.

All dates and times were up in the air as Haggen works with the court and Sagent Advisors, which is coordinating its sale process.

Haggen has blamed its failure on Albertsons in a $1 billion lawsuit, which alleges the fellow grocer sabotaged its entrance into new markets by providing false retail data for pricing, taking store inventory and more.

— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.