No Class Action for Home Depot Assistant Managers

meFor the past seven years, assistant managers have been pursuing overtime claims against The Home Depot in California. The first of three consolidated class actions was filed in Riverside County Superior Court in July 2001. In 2005, those plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification that was granted by Superior Court Judge Roger A. Luebs. Home Depot sought a writ petition, challenging the order in the Fourth District Court of Appeal. In an unpublished opinion, the petition was granted and the trial court was ordered to reconsider the motion using different standards. Judge Edward D. Webster reconsidered the motion and denied class certification the second time around.

In November 2007, in another unpublished opinion, the Fourth District upheld Judge Webster's order denying certification, finding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in determining that individual questions of fact predominated over common issues, making the case unsuitable as a class action. Specifically, the court noted that the number of employees and departments supervised by each of the 1,400 to 2,700 class members varied considerably among stores. The plaintiffs filed a petition for review.

On March 12, 2008, the Supreme Court denied review of the unpublished opinion. Home Depot Overtime Cases, Supreme Court case no. S159596. Justices Chin and Moreno did not participate. A request to publish the opinion was filed by The Employers Group on December 7, 2007, and quickly withdrawn on December 11, 2007.

The decision means that Home Depot assistant managers will have to file and pursue individual claims against the retailer, which may still prove quite worthwhile to pursue, in light of the declarations of 42 assistant managers who said they always worked at least 55 hours a week and often worked many more hours (as many as 90 hours a week), including on scheduled days off and during vacations, did not get lunch and rest breaks, and in more than half of the cases, performed the same tasks as hourly employees. It will be interesting to see how many individual cases are brought.

Comments

[MW]

I stumbled upon this as I researched complaints issues with other Home Depot ASMs. HD requires my husband, as an assistant store manager, to work a MINIMUM of 55 hours/week, but in reality he is often working six days a week and 13+ hour shifts. Schedules change midweek requiring more hours and days. He often works long shifts until midnight or later and then has to return another long day at 5 am the next morning. No health benefits. It's ridiculous. It is absolutely slave labor, and something needs to be done to provide some humane guidelines - in the meantime, HD works their ASMs any amount they want.