Home Depot Rooks Managers, Class Claims

CHICAGO (CN) - Home Depot forces its assistant managers and manager trainees to work more than 55 hours a week without overtime pay, according to a class action in Cook County Court.

Three named plaintiffs say Home Depot fires assistant managers or cuts their pay if they do not work at 11-hour shifts five days a week, and misclassifies assistant managers as exempt from overtime pay. This saves Home Depot "millions of dollars in employee compensation," but happens to be illegal, the class claims.

The class claims that during their training, which lasts from two to eight weeks, trainees "had no authority to hire or fire other employees ... nor did they have any input regarding store staffing." With no management duties, they say they could not be exempt from overtime wages.

Their attorneys estimate the class size as "hundreds if not thousands" at 57 Home Depot outlets in Illinois. The class period begins three years ago.

The class seeks lost unpaid wages and punitive damages. Their lead counsel is Mark Miller with Wexler Wallace and Lee Squitieri with Squitieri & Fearon in New York, N.Y.

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