Salaried department managers at Hannaford supermarkets in Maine, Massachusetts and New York were covered by an $8,875,000 wage settlement that a federal judge approved on August 27, 2026, resolving claims that the grocery chain classified them as exempt to avoid paying overtime. The case is over and there is no claim form to file — participation closed before the August 25 fairness hearing.
What Is This About?
Chief U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker granted final approval on August 27, 2026 to an $8,875,000 settlement in Vye v. Hannaford Bros. Co., LLC, No. 2:24-cv-00339-LEW, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. The same day, the court entered judgment and dismissed the case with prejudice.The lawsuit, filed October 2, 2024, alleged that Hannaford classified salaried department managers as exempt from overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the wage laws of the states where it operates, even though the work those managers actually did was largely the same hourly work their teams did. Hannaford denied the claims throughout and settled without admitting anything.
Who Was Covered, and the Split That Decides It
The class is not every manager in the building. It covers salary-paid, department-manager-titled positions below Store Manager and Assistant Store Manager — bakery, deli, deli/bakery, produce, meat market, meat/seafood, customer service and center store managers, plus salary-paid assistant-titled and trainee-titled employees working in those same departments. Evening Operations Manager and Associate Relations Manager positions are excluded. The covered periods run 2018 to 2024 in Maine and New York, and 2023 to 2024 in Massachusetts.The court finally certified three separate Rule 23 classes for settlement purposes — a Maine class, a Massachusetts class and a New York class — and separately granted final certification to an FLSA collective it had conditionally certified on September 15, 2025.
That two-track structure decides who is in and who is not. Rule 23 classes are opt-out: a Maine, Massachusetts or New York manager who fit the definition was included automatically unless they asked to be excluded, and exactly one person did. The FLSA collective is opt-in, and the order records what that produced — notice went to 1,296 individuals, of whom 456 returned Consent to Join forms. Someone in New Hampshire or Vermont has no Rule 23 class to fall back on, so the collective is their only route in.
The settlement adds a second door onto that route. People the agreement calls Rule 23-Absent FLSA Collective Members — those who never returned a consent form — can still join by accepting and cashing their FLSA Fund payment, which releases their FLSA claims in exchange. Cashing the check is itself the opt-in, so it is worth understanding before depositing one.
Court documents put the covered group at more than 1,400 people across Hannaford's stores in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont.
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Where the $8.875 Million Goes
The gross settlement amount is not the amount workers divide. The final approval order sets out each deduction:- Attorneys' fees — $2,958,333.33
- Litigation expenses — $32,168.18
- Settlement administration costs — $40,850.00
- Service awards — $10,000 to the lead class representative and $5,000 each to three others
That comes to about $3.06 million off the top, leaving roughly $5.82 million for class and collective members. The court ordered the remaining funds distributed under the allocation formula in the settlement agreement, which it found to be a fair and reasonable allocation.
Dividing $5.82 million by 1,400 people produces a number in the low four figures, and that number is worth ignoring. Payments are allocated by the number of weeks each person worked in the covered period, so a manager who spent six years in the class collects a multiple of what someone who spent four months collects — and the roughly 456 people who formally opted into the FLSA collective receive more than those who did not. The average describes nobody's check.
Court records also show the class was represented by Head Law Firm, LLC, Klafter Lesser, LLP, and Murray Plumb & Murray, all appointed as class counsel.
One thing happened well before the settlement and is worth noting on its own: in October 2024, within weeks of the complaint being filed, Hannaford announced it would begin paying overtime to midlevel managers it had previously treated as exempt. The company has maintained throughout that its classification always complied with the law.
What Happens Next
The releases in this settlement do not take effect the moment the judge signs. The order provides that class and collective members are barred from bringing further claims as of the date the judgment becomes final — when the appeal window closes with no appeal taken, when every appeal is resolved, or when the judgment is affirmed on appeal. Payments follow the agreement's own schedule after that, administered by the settlement administrator. No payment date has been announced.The court also wrote a limit into its own order: the findings were made for settlement purposes only and may not be cited to support certification of any contested class, collective or subclass in another case. Nobody suing a different grocery chain over department manager classification can point at this order as precedent that such a class is certifiable.
This page is informational and is not legal advice.
Why It Matters Beyond Hannaford
Department manager misclassification is one of the most durable wage theories in retail, and the reason is structural rather than legal. The federal executive exemption turns on what someone actually spends their day doing, not on the word "manager" in a title or on being paid a salary. A bakery or deli manager who is scheduled onto the floor to bake, stock and run a register alongside their team is doing hourly work under a salaried label, and that gap is what these cases litigate.Retail chains typically settle rather than test it, which is why the case law stays thin and the settlements keep coming. Grocery, restaurant and big-box workers who suspect the same pattern at their own employer should note that FLSA claims carry a short clock — generally two years, or three for a violation found to be willful — running backward from the day a suit is filed. Waiting shortens the recoverable period whether or not a case is ever brought.
Sources
- Final Approval Order, Vye v. Hannaford Bros. Co., LLC, No. 2:24-cv-00339-LEW (D. Me. Aug. 27, 2026), ECF No. 109 — the source for the settlement amount, the fee, expense, administration and service award figures, the certification of the three Rule 23 classes and the FLSA collective, and the non-admission language
- Judgment, same case, ECF No. 111 (Aug. 27, 2026)
- Minute entry for the Final Fairness Hearing held August 25, 2026, ECF No. 110
- Docket, Vye v. Hannaford Bros. Co., LLC, U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, case opened October 2, 2024
- Official case website maintained by the settlement administrator, RG/2 Claims Administration — the source for the covered job titles and the covered state date ranges
- Contemporaneous reporting from Maine news outlets on the class size, the allocation formula and Hannaford's public response
Questions
Is there a Hannaford overtime claim form to file?
No, and there never was one. Rule 23 class members in Maine, Massachusetts and New York were included automatically unless they excluded themselves, and the FLSA opt-in window closed before the August 25, 2026 fairness hearing. One route does remain open, though it is not a claim form: the settlement lets eligible people who never returned a consent form join the FLSA collective simply by accepting and cashing their FLSA Fund payment, which releases their FLSA claims in exchange.
Which Hannaford employees are covered by the settlement?
Salary-paid department manager positions below Store Manager and Assistant Store Manager — bakery, deli, produce, meat market, customer service and center store managers, and salary-paid assistant or trainee employees in those departments. Evening Operations Manager and Associate Relations Manager positions are excluded. The court finally certified three state classes under Rule 23 — Maine, Massachusetts and New York — plus the FLSA collective. That split matters: managers in the three Rule 23 states were included unless they excluded themselves, while someone in New Hampshire or Vermont is reached only through the FLSA collective.
How much of the $8.875 million actually reaches the workers?
The court awarded $2,958,333.33 in attorneys' fees, $32,168.18 in litigation expenses, $40,850 in settlement administration costs, and service awards of $10,000 to the lead class representative and $5,000 each to three others. That leaves roughly $5.82 million to be distributed among class and collective members under the allocation formula in the settlement agreement.
Did Hannaford admit it misclassified its department managers?
No. The final approval order states expressly that neither the order nor the agreement is evidence of, or an admission or concession of, any fault, liability, wrongdoing or damages. Hannaford has said publicly that it believes its classification of department manager positions has always complied with state and federal law.
When are payments issued?
The release takes effect only once the judgment becomes final, meaning the appeal period expires with no appeal taken or any appeal is resolved. Distribution follows the schedule in the settlement agreement and is handled by the settlement administrator. No payment date has been announced publicly.
