Home Depot Reaches $2.1M Overtime Pay Class Action Settlement

Home Depot will pay $2.1 million to settle an overtime pay class action lawsuit, according to an agreement recently approved by a California court.

The payment will go to a class of about 120 sales managers whom the home repair retailer had allegedly misclassified as “exempt,” resulting in alleged unpaid overtime.

Court documents filed with the settlement say that each class member will get an average payment of about $11,000.

Judge Elihu M. Berle had approved a basic outline of the settlement one month earlier, contingent on the parties’ ability to adequately notify the plaintiff class. Judge Berle issued his final approval upon finding those problems had been resolved.

This wage and hour class action lawsuit had been initiated in June 2013 by former Home Depot employee Rick H. Rick died after filing the claim, and his estate continued to litigate on his behalf. Under the terms of the settlement, Rick’s estate will receive an incentive award of $15,000 for acting as the lead plaintiff.

Rick had raised a few different claims under California overtime law. He had alleged Home Depot owed unpaid overtime to certain sales managers who had been incorrectly classified as exempt employees.

He also claimed that Home Depot had failed to offer its sales managers breaks for rest and meals and had failed to reimburse them for business expenses. He alleged Home Depot had also failed to provide these sales managers with accurate itemized wage statements.

Rick also took issue with the terms of Home Depot’s commission system, alleging it had been purposely structured to avoid paying employees commission for the last month of their employment.

Under those terms, Home Depot would pay commission only if the employee was employed on both the first and last day of the month when the commission was earned, as well as on the day that wages were scheduled to be paid, according to Rick.

He also alleged that Home Depot purposely scheduled final payment for 30 days after the last day of employment in order to avoid paying the last month’s commission.

Another lead plaintiff, Philip M., had been added to this class action lawsuit to represent a separate putative class of sales consultants. Home Depot addressed Philip’s claims in a separate settlement.

The Home Depot Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. BC512804 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Overtime Pay Under California Law

Many of Rick’s claims invoke the protections available to employees under California overtime law. Eligible California employees should receive overtime pay for working more than eight hours in a single day or more than 40 hours in a single week.

If an employee works more than 12 hours in a single day, they can be entitled to an overtime pay rate of double their regular rate. An employee who works on a seventh day can receive overtime pay at time-and-a-half for the first eight hours and double-time for hours after that.

California wage and hour law also guarantees workers will receive certain rest and meal breaks. A California worker can get a 30-minute unpaid meal break after five hours of work, unless the work day will be done in under six hours and both employer and employee consent to waive the meal break.

Employees can also get one ten-minute paid rest break for each four hours of work or major fraction thereof, taken “as practicable” and in the middle of the work period – as long as the total daily work time is three and a half hours or more.

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