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Plaintiffs in a Dollar Tree employee lawsuit have requested approval for a $2.5 million settlement to end the suit, according to Law360. Plaintiffs allege that Dollar Tree distribution centers committed wage violations including not allowing employees proper break and rest periods. The plaintiff class includes anyone who worked at a Dollar Tree distribution center between April 2011 and the end of 2019.
Dollar Tree Employee Arbitration Agreements
According to Law360, Plaintiff Terry Snipes brought his claim against Dollar Tree Distribution Inc. in April 2015. The suit and class membership have been complicated by Dollar Tree’s employee arbitration program.
Lead plaintiff Terry Snipes opted out of this program before filing his suit. In May, U.S. District Judge Morrison England was asked by Dollar Tree to enforce arbitration measures signed by about 1,600 employees after the October 6, 2014 cutoff.
The judge forced the claims into arbitration and dismissed claims made by employees who signed arbitration pacts after the Oct. cutoff under the California Private Attorneys General Act. However, these 1,600 employees are still eligible to access the Dollar Tree employee lawsuit settlement.
The workers said in Friday’s preliminary settlement motion, “While certain of the settlement class members agreed to arbitrate their claims with defendant on an individual basis, defendant agrees, for purposes of settlement only, that the claims of such settlement class members are typical of plaintiffs’ claims.”
The Dollar Tree Employee Lawsuit Settlement
In the Dollar Tree employee lawsuit, plaintiffs alleged that Dollar Tree’s labor and wage practices are in violation of California law. Workers allege the company failed to give appropriate breaks and maintained poor timekeeping practices.
Negotiations and significant litigation have led to a tentative settlement. The requested settlement of $2.5 million is seen as a big victory for the workers.
The workers said the settlement represents “an outstanding result in light of the strengths and weaknesses in the case. In light of the significant risks involved in this matter the settlement represents an excellent result for the settlement class” in their preliminary settlement motion.
The settlement includes $125,000 to go towards claims filed under the California Private Attorneys General Act with $93,000 of that amount going to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Another $750,000 will go towards attorney fees, according to Law360. The roughly 2,400 class members of the settlement will receive an average of $625 each. Any uncashed settlement checks are meant to be sent to the Veterans Legal Institute.
Dollar Tree’s History of Employee Mistreatment
Good Jobs First estimates that Dollar Tree and its divisions have committed 13 wage and labor violations since 2000 resulting in fines of $65,328,128. This is by far the most costly of Dollar Tree’s violations, but employee discrimination is a close second resulting $45,218,750 in penalties for the company. The Dollar Tree employee lawsuit is only the tip of the iceberg of Dollar Tree’s alleged violations.
The U.S. Department of Labor also reports that a Dollar Tree in Pennsylvania put employees in danger by blocking emergency exits, failing to secure dangerous materials, failing to maintain sanitary bathrooms, and improperly storing and maintaining materials such as electric panels.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found similar violations at another store in Massachusetts. All told, these two locations racked up more than $800,000 for putting employees in hazardous situations.
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75 thoughts onDollar Tree Employee Lawsuit Reaches $2.5M Settlement
I have put in several discrimination reports on my manager and nothing has been done about it or him. He brags Nobody is going to fire him. He say who’s going to fire him? In front of the customers, employees, on the phone in everyone presence, talking loud, and laughing on his phone. He has changed my time on many, occasions, he has called me a liar on several occasions and the list goes on.
I was a manager at the Dollar Tree in Cleveland Tennessee for 3 years and was also forced to work off the clock doing post voids drops getting change etc
I worked at Dollar Tree as front ops assistant manager these are the things I witnessed and the things I went through while I worked there. The manager would not let employees leave at their scheduled times saying they had to get certain things done before they could leave, which was impossible due to being the only cashier. The cashiers were denied by the manager their breaks or lunches. The manager would go into the computer and change people’s clock in or clock out times and say ” They didn’t do anything while they was here anyway”
The manager would get a email from the Dm telling her that she went over on hours given so she would go in a dock hours on people’s times to match the hours she was approved for. I was told as a assistant manager I was not eligible for overtime because of my title. It was apart of the job. If I was going to go into overtime before my shift was over I was required to clock out and work off the clock. And told that she would add that time in on my next check. Which never happened. We had a cashier who was on disability so she was only allowed so many hours. My manager would work her from open to close and dock her hours manually. This employee was somewhat mentally impaired and the manager would manipulate her by telling her if she doesn’t do it she would lose her job, which would result in her not being able to pay her rent, she would lose her house if she can’t pay her rent and so on. I tried to set her down and explain to her what was being done but she was so scared of the manager and that she would lose her job that she wouldn’t discuss it. The manager would do large return transactions of stuff that she would supposedly have bought 50-100 items two or three times a week. Inventory was coming up and she told me when I’m counting to add 5 to 10 to each. She said it was ok because they had a previous manager that was fired for stealing so corporate knew about it. I knew better so when inventory Time came I counted and entered that number. During taking inventory the system showed that someone Changed a count from 5 to 50. When the DM yelled for everyone to stop counting the manager came to me and another manager and told us to turn off our counter tablets and give them to her. We did what she said. I later realize what she was doing. She switched the tablets and put that blame on me. The Dm came to the office and had the quality control guy on the phone to talk to me. I told him what my manager told me to do but I did not do that and he kept calling me a liar over and over, he then tried to say I was doing large return transactions for my benefit. I told him all the return transactions I done was for my manager. He told me I would need to pay $345 to cover these fraudulent transactions that I done or the cops would get involved. He told me if I would write a statement saying I did these transactions to benefit myself and I would pay dollar tree $345, then I wouldn’t have to go through the hassle or getting the cameras pulled and the cops involved. I told him to pull the cameras bc I was innocent and I wasn’t agreeing to pay anything for something I didn’t do. He tried saying so you would rather pull the cameras to prove you did this because we already know you did, and then get taking out of the store in handcuffs by the police infront of everyone, instead of simply righting a statement telling what you did. He told me word for word what to right in the statement BTW. I said pull the cameras. This went on for a while. Finally I said ok I’ll write a statement so I wrote exactly what the manager told me to do and I wrote the only transaction I did was for my manager and I never benefited from those transaction. I gave my keys and I left. I was falsely accused and terminated for something I didn’t do. They had their mind made up or who they was gonna pin this on before I ever walked in that office. I gave them the truth and they didn’t even try to get to the bottom of who was doing what. They invested that time into trying to force me to falsely criminalize myself. There is no chain of command for employees because the higher you go the more corrupt they get. I never got a proper investigation that I asked for many times.
I worked at the Dollar Tree had a co worker ( shift Manager)that was very rude to the customers and would walk up to them accusing them of stealing stuff when it’s in company policy not to approach and or say anything to them when they are caught this lady walked up to a man accused him of stealing a ice cream bar he told her that he was going to get his guys and come back in the store and take care of us about an hour later there was two guys that came into the store one with a gun one with a machete and I believe the only thing that saved our lives that night was when I yelled when is the Emmett township Police getting here. The store that I worked at is about three blocks from my house those guys were arrested that night I am paranoid now that they’re going to come after me from what she did against company policy. I quit there last Thursday on account of her badgering me. After I had been off for 2 days sick. I feel unsafe in my neighborhood now because of her actions the Dollar Tree should have fired her that day but they did not she has since caused quite a commotion at the store I feel she has put me in Jeopardy of my safety. I feel the store should have fired her for not following company policy. But they kept her. She has since been hit with a cart yelled at children and they still keep her. I filed a complaint with corporate they did nothing.
I have experienced the same and now I am putting in my 2weeks notice..I have been attack by the newest manager and until recently I either didn’t get a break or my shift ends at 2:30 I will get a break at 2:15-2:20. Most recently while working I was followed by a coworker who reports to said mgr. And followed me around the store as I did stock and her job of returns. As if I am stealing while working. When I place my items up for purchase ,the coworker yells out loud are you paying for all that? Next day a pastor came in to make the same accusations that I have suffered. We are both black by the way. That is my cue to leave. Along with no air for the 3rd year in a row. And my time cards being skimmed, signing me out while I’m still working etc. Therefore As I stated I am putting in my 2 weeks notice 07/23/2023
The Dollar Tree seems to hire some of the worst of the worst employees. I worked there as an armed guard at a different location and one of the assistant managers for some reason decided that I’m the one she would pick on. Not to mention I never reported her stealing all the time. Yes, the assistant managers steal all the time through various methods, including markdowns and item stacking (where you put items into other items in order to conceal them). It was not my job to say anything, I’m not loss prevention. But when she started spreading rumors I reported it. Those reports disappeared conveniently and my manager called me about one months of reports missing. Oh and the report where I mentioned she tried to start an altercation with a homeless man who is known to be violent if provoked also disappeared. Convenient. And who would have had to pull him off of her and potentially get physically injured or shoot someone? Me. And she knew this. She also had another employee who was soon to be assistant manager block in another customer with carts because she was stealing. And that lady got punched in the head which I thought was funny. Then they started screaming at each other and I ended up on the other side of the carts and had to push them out of the way to get to her. I ended up having to pepper spray the woman because she would not back down and it was obvious she was going to hit her again!
And the manager who likes to cause me problems? Well she just created a problem for Dollar Tree and her little group of knocks who like to slander me! Because I called my lawyer last week! Teach your employees not to spread false rumors and make false written statements. She wasn’t dumb enough to write about the false sexual harassment investigations that never took place but she was dumb enough to convince two of her cohorts to write down a different false statement. And she was dumb enough to tell every girl there I had 2 investigations on me, which I called my manager about. He assured me that these were lies and that I would have been immediately removed! And nobody is going to sexually harass that ugly witch!!! Ugly inside and out!
So now, I can only say, thanks for the future money DT! AND THE BIGGEST MIDDLE FINGER I CAN GIVE YOU FOR DARING TO REMOVE ME AND MY INCOME OVER FALSE STATEMENTS ABOUT ME! SUCK ON THAT!
I had been over worked,working in shipping, receiving, osline,slaper line,forklift driver and pallet yard every night constantly moving me around.one night I had a stroke in the back of a truck I was un loading by hand,went to office and told them I was feeling strange and my left arm was numb.got threatening of loosing my job if I left to go to the hospital, it was. About a hour before shift change so I had to wait.went home and wife noticed I had a stroke called an ambulance and u was in the hospital for two weeks.they dropped my insurance when I got out and said they would give me my job back when I got better, now my whole left side is numb and I’m not able to work anymore, had to go on disability. No future of me ever getting over this or back to normal. They lied and said this didn’t happen at work,this was in 2018.
Ad me
Fui despedido al tercer día de trabajo sin motivo ninguno y eso me tiene muy decaído autoestima mente
They only let me take my break at the end of my shift and underpaid me. My paycheck after working 4-5 hours, was only 18 dollars. I got rent to pay. This is ridiculous.
I to was an assistant manager for dollartree in Baxley Ga. I have worked off the clock many times been forced to travel which I was never asked to do just told I paid for the gas out of my own pocket 45-50 miles round trip and if it was at night they made me work after telling them I can’t see at night to drive,and had a bad tire on my car my husband had to drive me so instead of 2 trips there and back he had to drive me there then 35 miles back home just to have to drive over there and pick me up again, I told them I didn’t want to travel told them why and was not the only management that could go, some with even better rides and no problem seeing at night could go it b/c the Manager was buddies with the DM and other assistant it was put on me they were supposed to reimburse me for my gas that I paid for to make these trips but still have not, I’ve asked my former manager she said it’s in the DM hands she nolonger works as DM and when I told them I would not travel anymore then it was not long until they had made their own excuse to terminate me by saying I was stealing and bullied me in to a corner then gave my job to a meth head just cause she will travel rarely did I get a lunch or supper break cause I worked mostly nights and it would be just me and 1 cashier to run and clean and recover that store at night and you better not be late clocking out so at times I had to clock out and still work at night to get done. Now their lawyer is sending me papers about money that I didn’t take like they said,and what I did do everyone that worked there was doing the same thing but I’m the only one let go don’t have money for a lawyer or another job cause the ones that work here in town at dollartree are smearing my name idk what to do anymore. I was a hard worker never late never call in always at work. Yet I still can’t get my mileage pay and they want me to pay them 1600 dollars for stuff that I did not do all of. Please help.
I need to be in the class a tion also I had the COVID I had to work they cut my hours to none in seven days to I got injured at the training store they made finished the truck in order to leave then cost me 3500 for new teeth from injury they didn’t do incident report then she said aceset protection want to talk to me they never did the cause I called them all the way they wouldn’t give me my PTO time or sick time a t all …please get a hold of me keithleyteddy1@gmail.com