By Danielle Rossingh BBC News Online business reporter

Supermarket chain Albert Heijn is one of Ahold's top assets

The complaint of workers at Ahold's flagship supermarket Albert Heijn is that they lost money by investing in a fund whose value was closely tied to the company's own, apparently secure, future.

When Ahold last month admitted to a $500m hole in its accounts, it shares dropped by more than 70%.

Investors say they have lost a comparable proportion of their savings in the company fund.

Turning 9,000 euros into 2,000

Jan Tellinga and his wife, who has worked in Albert Heijn's delicatessen department for more than 20 years, invested 9,075 euros (20,000 guilders; �6,149) in the fund in 1998.

Their investment is now worth 2,000 euros.

Mr Tellinga recently set up a group representing disgruntled Albert Heijn employees and told BBC News Online the group wanted to take Ahold to court to get their money back.

"So far 110 employees have come forward, not just of Albert Heijn but also of other Ahold companies such Gall & Gall," Mr Tellinga said.

Violating the rules?

"We understand the disappointment some workers must be feeling," an Albert Heijn spokesman told BBC News Online.

"But our employees participate in the fund through a loan. Most employees still have three to five years to pay off that loan."

A spokesman for the Dutch stock market watchdog AFM declined to comment on the employees' complaint.

But he referred to an earlier statement in which AFM said it had no reason to believe Ahold had violated Dutch regulations.

The AH Regular Customers Fund was set up in the early 1990s and has attracted 148,000 investors in the Netherlands, 3,500 of whom are AH employees.

The value of the fund was 218m euros before Ahold revealed the accounting black hole. Afterwards, it dropped to 150m euros.

Under the scheme, 50% of workers' savings into the fund are invested in Ahold shares while the rest is held in cash.

Shares in the fund are traded independently of the underlying assets. This left investors vulnerable to the collapse of confidence in Ahold as the value of their investments could fall by more than 50% although no more than that proportion was invested in Ahold shares.

'Committed workers'

Albert Heijn, which was founded 150 years ago, was last week handing out free coffee to shoppers to thank them "for their support".

"We have a long history and a good reputation. Our workers are very committed to the company and are working very hard at the moment," the AH spokesman said.

Albert Heijn is the top Dutch supermarket with about 700 shops.

Ahold's accounting practices are being investigated in the US, the Netherlands and Uruguay while chief executive Cees van der Hoeven and chief financial officer Michiel Meurs have resigned.

This week, Dudley Eustace was named interim chief financial officer.

Mr Eustace, a British citizen, is a former deputy chairman and finance director at Dutch electronics giant Philips.