The Home Depot was founded in Atlanta, GA in 1978 and it is the world's largest home improvement retailer with over 1,800 warehouse-style, consumer oriented stores located throughout the United States. They have recently come under scrutiny as many of its employees banded together to form a home depot class action suit against the company over unpaid overtime. The class action has been certified by a Riverside California County Superior Court judge and actually consolidated three different lawsuits about the same issue. The trial is set to take place in 2006.
The home depot lawsuit alleges that Home Depot violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. Essentially, individuals were promoted to positions in management, which were salaried, and then asked to work 55 hours or more, sometimes as cashiers, selling merchandise to customers, stocking the shelves and traveling to other stores to retrieve merchandise or other roles that would typically be given to hourly workers. Because these assistant managers and supervisors were doing this work more than 50% of the time, they are suing for the money they lost being classed as salaried employees. Home Depot illegally required the salaried managers to perform those tasks to avoid paying hourly sales clerks and employee’s overtime.
The legal issue centers on exempt vs. non-exempt workers - or the classification of jobs denoted as “hourly” vs. “salaried.” If a person is in a management position, they must devote less that 20 % of their time to activities not related to managerial duties. In the case of a retail or service establishment, the bar was raised to less that 40%, but if the Home Depot workers were spending more than 50% of their time conducting the duties of hourly personnel, then Home Depot has violated the Fair Labor Standards law. This is a typical practice in larger corporations who want to spend less money on paying employees. The seduction of power in managerial positions typically blinds employees to the fact that they are being substantially less than they would have been if they had stayed in an hourly role. Hence the home depot payroll lawsuit was filed.
The Home Depot class action lawsuit could include as many as 2,000 people or more who served as assistant managers, supervisors and managers in the 186 California Home Depot stores from the dates of July 30, 1997, through 2006. The total damages are estimated at approximately $100 million.
The issue of exempt vs. non-exempt employees is raised across American in large companies all the time. If you feel as though you have been a victim of this law violation and you are an employee of Home Depot, or an employee of another large company you should contact a labor attorney as soon as you can. A reputable attorney will be able to advise you about your individual circumstances and help you identify the best course of action for you. Don’t let your labor rights be violated – doing hourly work for more than the correct allotted percentage if you are a salaried employee is illegal and you don’t have to stand for it.