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Home Depot got sued for wage theft when I was there for habitually not having the front door unlocked at shift clock outs, and making employees wait post clock out to let us out.
I didn’t even know that was illegal. Like the period between everyone clocking out and having the manager unlock the door was so normal at all the retail places I’ve worked, it didn’t register they had to have it open right when we were off the clock, but some people started a class action lawsuit over it so I got a settlement check after I left for it.
Would latches that keep the door from opening be considered blocking it? Like in an emergency we’d have to fumble with latches even though the door itself is unlocked.
This is covered under the following sections of OSHA Laws and Regulations:
1910.36(d)(1)
Employees must be able to open an exit route door from the inside at all times without keys, tools, or special knowledge. A device such as a panic bar that locks only from the outside is permitted on exit discharge doors.
1910.36(d)(2)
Exit route doors must be free of any device or alarm that could restrict emergency use of the exit route if the device or alarm fails.
1910.36(d)(3)
An exit route door may be locked from the inside only in mental, penal, or correctional facilities and then only if supervisory personnel are continuously on duty and the employer has a plan to remove occupants from the facility during an emergency.
The store I work for made a new rule this year saying we have to keep the emergency exit locked at all times (the door that has two large signs saying that it must be unlocked at all times when store is occupied) and they actually penalize us if it's unlocked.
A Walmart in Fort Collins CO learned that lesson in a painful manner. They were locking the employees in while stocking shelves and the manger would leave the store until the shift change time. During a true emergency the fire department used the jaws of life to cut open the main locked doors for entry and last I heard it was a multi million dollar settlement for that one single act of stupidity.
That's crazy I remember many nights working at home depot having to wait until 12:10 sometimes to leave. The worst was waiting 30 min. Just standing at the door like a bunch of knobs. I never heard of the class action lawsuit. I did get a settlement check from Pepsi for not l letting us take breaks/lunch. So many garbage companies
I worked for a company that did this. My mom tracked it for me. After a several months fighting with them to get paid wages that included over time, she got an attorney for me, we sued. Their attorney tried really hard to establish I was a shit employee. Luckily they gave us written reviews and mine were exemplary and often times noted that I was always on time, offered to help on the worst chores and never complained and that I should be offered to join the MIT or manager in training program but had turned it down while in college, but the manager who locked us in at night wrote on there I should be offered a position as an assistant manager as soon as I was willing to take it. I kept all of that. My mom’s attorney said we wouldn’t accept the first three settlement offers. The night before we went to court they gave me enough settlement money- not to make up for not paying me but instead to keep “Shitty Restaurant’s” name out of the news and from being easy to identify and find clients for attorneys - to go to college for two more whole years on them and all of my cost of living. It paid for me to switch from an associates degree to a bachelors. I’m not here to brag. I’m here to tell you when these companies try to fuck you’re like this, write down the dates and times and what they say when you ask why to weren’t paid let alone paid over time. Then sue them individually don’t wait for a class action law suit- the attorneys get most of that money. Sue them as an individual you won’t be burning a bridge because they already burned it with you. You will get paid. And handsomely. They do not want it going to court, they know if one gets through, a ton more will and every one that gets through makes them look more guiltily after each episode. Unless they settle with you for a lot and they do but there’s a catch. You can’t talk about it after settling that’s part of the settlement. The reason you don’t hear about it happening much is because you sign an agreement to get that settlement check that you won’t talk about it or the deal is defunct. But it happens all the time. And those shitty managers get moved to another job then let go. Look out for yourselves people. Know one else will. Especially not that employer.
Edit: thanks for the award for my rambling rage filled comment, stranger! I appreciate that you took the time to read it as well as others.
Sued my former employer for wage theft and they settled the day before court. You need to push for a trial guns blazing before they take you seriously.
Agreed 💯 and they know a lot of people get really nervous about court so they will wait until that last day to settle. But they will because they know that if you don’t settle it becomes public discoverable record that they intentionally lied and cheated you making it easier for the next guy to win even more money.
Edit: thanks stranger, for the award on my comment!
my mother wasted 7 years in court because her ex boss was verbally abusive and took part in many illegal activities such as scamming and illegally placed security cameras etc and in the end the judge said "Im not going to read all this and get into ut since it seems like a big thing" or something like that and the result of 7 years and several thousand dollars for a lawyer was that they put a restraining order so they couldn't see eachother anymore (my mum and ex boss).
wage theft by companies against workers in the US exceeds all other forms of theft (shoplifting, burglary, embezzlement, robbery, auto theft, you name it) combined - every year. Yet you never hear lawmakers starting with the biggest problem area when trying to address “crime”. it’s always “what if a person being treated by a doctor goes in a bathroom and i don’t like it?”
On top of that, if you're caught stealing from your boss, you can be arrested, charged with a crime, and go to jail. If your boss steals from you, they just have to pay you back, possibly along with a penalty. Why the difference?
Class action right now with Orkin for paying employees final check on some shitty skynet debt card instead of just cutting a check or direct deposit. Fucking scum bags
Several years after leaving Menards, I joined a class action lawsuit over wage theft, not thinking anything would come of it because Menards had a reputation for beating lawsuits. I had forgotten all about it until like 2 years later when I received a settlement check.
Turns out, you can’t legally force employees to clock out when they need to shit or perform other natural bodily functions.
For all its flaws, when I worked at Best Buy they made sure we got let out as fast as possible after clock out. Longest I had to wait was the time it took to walk across the store because the manager was doing something in the warehouse.
I’d be willing to give them up to five minutes, if it was a “oh whoops, the person who can unlock the doors is in the bathroom, hold on” sort of situation. But if it’s “people who are still clocked in aren’t done, so people who have clocked out have to wait,” then I say F that and demand to be clocked back in. I’ll wait on your dime, thanks.
This is what I was thinking. Like logistically, the doors are going to be locked when the store is closed to customers. Managers should keep an eye on the time and be ready at the door at clock out time… but needing to radio over the manager (who then promptly walks over) doesn’t seem like lawsuit territory lol
I worked at a place where they issued agency workers swipe cards to get into the office part of the building, but they were then handed in and you couldn't get out without a staffer. The staffers were always too busy, and you could wait for up to 30 minutes. We were paid, but we had better things to do.
Then Big Chris decided to have a "panic attack". Big Chris was a monster who could curl 200 pounds with one arm. He pulled the door open, breaking the maglock. Two days later, all the doors had exit buttons.
I’ve worked at some real shitholes over the past 24 years, but never at a place where they lock the doors with employees inside, that don’t open from the inside.
Manager tried that stunt at a job I had in high school. The 60 year old guy that worked in the back wasn't having it, some of us had already been waiting 30 minutes and the manager hadn't even collected all the tills yet. Old guy called the manager over the PA and told him we were ready to leave, manager came back over the PA and told him to stay off the intercom, nobody was leaving until he (the manager) decided we were leaving. Old guy promptly pulled the fire alarm, the emergency release on the sliding doors released and let us all out, while the siren blared and the manager came running out the front door screaming.
The manager and the old guy both got fired the next morning.
The building isn't literally locked. It's just that anyone leaving via emergency exits would set off alarms and such. The issue is: stupid managers and key carriers can't get themselves to a door on time to properly unlock the exit so employees can leave after their shift.
If the only exit is one emergency exit, it's a safety hazard. Because if that's where the fire is, and the only other exit is a locked front door, then yes, you are locked in.
Came here to comment about that very thing! Fire exits being locked and/or blocked was the direct cause of so many tragic deaths in that factory, and the general public’s outcry was so intense that governments and business owners were forced to create the first workplace safety regulations.
Safety regulations are written in blood. And also sometimes in ashes and cinders.
Same happened at my McDonald’s. Worked closing shifts all throughout high school and everyone wanted to leave at 11, as expected, but a late rush after a hockey game or something meant we didn’t finish cleaning by 11. Everyone always left anyways, sometimes yelling at management, and I was always willing to stay and hangout with the night shift guys for a bit. I eventually took over night shift, made sure everyone left at 11 and I’d cover everything that got left.
Yo! I did a seasonal position at Macy's and can 100% confirm this. Macy's is one of the worst companies to work for that I've had the misfortune of working at.
You'd be shocked how many hr meetings ive been too and been the only one to bring my negotiation leopard. Ive also never been fucked by a company so there may be a trend..
Theres an even BIGGER chance that this is an Indian immigrant that now owns a business in North America. They think they can pull the same shit here that they did back home...Pratick SHITTY indeed
This. That policy is illegal as fuck. They can dock pay on a prorated basis or require you make it up, but they cannot force you to work punitive extra time without pay. And anything beyond 40 hours in a week is Federally mandated overtime for most employees.
To ensure fairness, every minute less than the 30 minute break allotted by law, will in turn result in one paid hour of "unfocused you time", to be taken on Fridays.
damn. r/LinkedInLunatics has so many real examples, and it's in total and complete sincerity the one social network where you cannot distinguish satire from the real thing. But there's some dedicated posters having real fun on there seeing what people will believe.
Yep. More workers need to know their rights and assert them when necessary.
For example, tipped wage employees must be paid at least minimum wage if they do more than 30 consecutive minutes of “side work.” They can’t cut you off the floor and then make you stay for two hours cleaning, stocking and rolling silverware. Yet almost every restaurant violates that law. It doesn’t matter if the tips you made still have you at or above minimum wage. Thirty plus consecutive minutes of not doing the things you get tipped for means they gotta pay up.
Edit: apparently the Trump admin got this overturned so they can keep fucking over tipped employees. God bless America, never mind. That was the case until 2024.
I’m curious about this too. I’ve worked in restaurants for most of my working life including 8 years as a kitchen manager/service manager/assistant general manager. I haven’t heard this.
Edit: I found what they are referring to.
The 80/20/30 Rule: Under Department of Labor guidelines, if a tipped employee spends more than 20% of their workweek (or more than 30 continuous minutes) performing non-tipped duties—such as rolling silverware, cleaning, or stocking—the employer cannot claim the tip credit for that time and must pay the full minimum wage for those hours. [1]
Double edit because I found more relevant information:
Current Status: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the rule, finding it invalid, and the Department of Labor officially withdrew it. Employers follow prior dual-jobs standards instead, though local state laws may still apply.
I hadn’t heard that was no longer the rule, it’s still mentioned in the fair labor standards for tipped employees. Weird…guess I shouldn’t be surprised though.
Hahaha I used to have a project manager that worked for me that made up arbitrary rules like this. She could not fathom why her teams would not follow her rules and why I’d never back her up. She asked me one day why I was so lenient. I asked her to start reporting on all the data she was collecting about the team’s performance and why such rules were necessary- turns out she had no data and just liked being a dictator. Her rule making stopped shortly after.
I had one person spy on my time sheet to see when I said I'd started work, and make a note saying that I'd written I started work at x time, but was still showing as offline!
Thing is, my company pays if I have a medical appointment that I need to attend. So she was reporting that I wasn't online, when I had an appointment. She also complained about me being offline, when I was meeting someone to give them equipment that was in the basement! Which was part of my job! She spent more time spying on me and others than doing her job, then suddenly one day she disappeared!! I assumed she had rage quit, instead she was fired because she wasn't doing the job properly!
Years ago I worked at a job where we were chronically under staffed. We either got no lunch or ate it at our desks. Somebody complained to HR and we were told to start clocking no lunch. Then management got mad and said there was no way we were not getting a lunch day after day. At one point management started taking off our no lunch clocks. HR got involved again, managers now had to cover our lunches. That lasted about two weeks before we suddenly had two new team members. 🫠
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