Home Depot's $72.5 Million Settlement for California Wage Class Action:
The settlement covers more than 272,000 people employed by Home Depot in California since March 8, 2012
Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the U.S., has recently agreed to pay a whopping $72.5 million to settle a longstanding wage class-action lawsuit in California.
The settlement proposal was filed in a San Francisco federal court and will need to be approved by a judge reported Reuters.
The lawsuit alleged the company underpaid its workers, a claim that the company has consistently denied. Nevertheless, Home Depot chose to settle to avoid litigation's cost, uncertainty, and burden.
Initiated in March 2016, the lawsuit involved a former employee alleging several wage and hour violations. At the core of the allegations were claims that Home Depot did not properly compensate employees for every hour worked and that it did not provide appropriate meal and rest breaks.
The complaint detailed practices such as rounding down employees' hours to the nearest quarter of an hour and requiring them to put in unpaid time off the clock, which were alleged to be in violation of the California Labor Code.
Specifically, the lawsuit maintained that it was Home Depot's policy to "shave" employees' clock-in and clock-out times at the beginning and end of their shifts and meal periods to the nearest quarter of an hour. This practice, the plaintiff argued, resulted in employees not being paid for every hour they worked.
Furthermore, the lawsuit contended that workers who were on closing shifts were required to clock out, wait at the front of the store until all other employees had clocked out, and then leave after the store's alarm system was armed.
This time, spent under the control of Home Depot but off the clock, was also not compensated, thus leading to unpaid minimum wages and unpaid overtime for weeks when employees worked over 40 hours.
After taking out legal fees and costs, half of the settlement goes to hourly employees who worked closing shifts and were required to wait for off-the-clock after stores were locked.
Another 41% goes to employees who were not paid for the time needed to collect and put on aprons, and 9% goes to employees who lost pay because Home Depot rounded their clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest quarter hour.
The settlement covers more than 272,000 people employed by Home Depot in California since March 8, 2012, and is "fair, reasonable and adequate," the plaintiffs' lawyers said.
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