Merchandising Assistant Store Managers File Lawsuit Against Home Depot For Overtime Pay

Managers and assistant managers: If you spend the majority of your time on non-managerial duties you may be eligible to file for your back overtime pay.

In order to save money many companies will label their employees as “managers” or “assistant managers” and tell them that they are not eligible to overtime pay. This is a classic example of employee misclassification and it robs workers of thousands of dollars every year. If you are a manager or assistant manager, but the majority of your duties involve non-managerial tasks, you may be eligible to file against your employer for your overtime pay.

Case in Point: Merchandising assistant store managers file lawsuit against Home Depot stores for overtime pay

Over 100 current and former Home Depot employees filed a class-action lawsuit claiming Home Depot misclassified assistant store managers as “executives” in order to avoid paying them overtime. Another 75 people filed a similar class-action lawsuit for unpaid overtime in Camden, New Jersey.

The Home Depot class action lawsuit claims that merchandising assistant store managers are required to perform both managerial and non-managerial duties, but spend the majority of their time on their non-managerial duties because Home Depot expects them to prioritize these over their managerial duties.

The class action lawsuit further claims that one of the requirements of the Merchandising Assistant Store Manager position is to work a minimum of 55 hours per week. Many of the employees in the suit claim they frequently and regularly worked beyond the minimum 55 hours per week without receiving overtime pay.

Non-managerial tasks included:

• packing and unpacking trucks;
• organizing products and product displays;
• cleaning bathrooms/cleaning the store;
• taking out the garbage;
• returning shopping carts from the parking lot;
• running registers;
• loading customers’ cars “tasking.”

The Home Depot overtime class action lawsuit seeks unpaid wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act, liquidated damages, penalties, interest, and court costs.