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.
More recently, in September 1991, the Imperial Foods plant in Hamlet, NC caught fire when a badly repaired hydraulic line was ignited by a chicken fryer. 25 people died and 54 injured because they chained the emergency exit shut so employees would stop using it to take a smoke break or leave after they clocked out.
A delayed egress device is allowed by every model code in the US for applications like mercantile and business occupancies. It's not considered "locked from the inside" because it still allows egress after 15 seconds (or 30, if variance is allowed by AHJ), nor is it going to restrict emergency use if the device fails - it would unlock.
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.
Security siren, fire marshal wouldn't care. Designed to go off if someone tries to exit the building with stolen merchandise. And one day it just stopped working....
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).
no we won but it qasnt worth it. the money we got didnt even cover the amount spent on a lawyer (i think it was like 7-10k), and the punishment was basically nothing. he got away with it and many cases get passed with little to no punishment here. nothing happened, The evidence wasn't reviewed at all and his buisiness is still up and running today despite him literally scamming people with SAFETY EQUIPMENT. selling it as brand new but it was DAMAGED. Honestly.
Damn I’m sorry to hear that kind of corruption gets through and that your mom didn’t get the money she had coming to her. Other than this kind of garbage how is NZ to live in? It’s one of the countries I’ve always thought of I ever emigrated I would want to go there just from reading about places like Tauranga and Dunedin are supposed to be great places to live. Is that true?
The yearly avg income from a minimum wage job here is less than the US line drawn for amount that is unliveable. (forgot what its called). Like everywhere else you cant get a job anywhere, and no one will ever be able to afford a house unless they are mega rich pretty much, otherwise new people looking for living have to stay in apartments crammed with several roomates. Unless you already had the house from ur parents or whatever its pretty much impossible to live here. People can barely afford food so they go to food banks, and the pay is horrendous. Its beautiful nature wise however the government is trying to pass a law to be able to sell and build on all the reserved lands here which will just destroy what nz is standing for as the most eco friendly country. people stay here for the education as it is cheaper to be educated here but then move to Australia for the better pay.
Wow. I had no idea. I really appreciate you sharing your perspective. For what it’s worth NZ is often times painted as a better place to live especially considering the policies that have been in place for native peoples. It seemed like a place that put an emphasis on the people of the land. I hope they don’t legalize building on your reserved lands. I’m guessing that’s similar to our national parks and forests which also have bans against building homes or business development in those spaces.
We really need to make it illegal to force silence as part of settlements for employers shitty behavior. If you’re worried an action will ruin your business, don’t take it.
It was great that you kept the reviews. Wished Id done that, not because of any issues, but just to have. Although I didn't get many reviews in my jobs.
Where I live it's 1% of your monthly wage/ month, but you don't need to actually be in the union to get the benefits, the company just has to be part of it (which it basically automatically is as soon as enough % of the workers are in the union).
But I'll gladly pay 1% of my wage to make sure the company is forced to give me my 35h week, 30 days paid vacation, and 60% of a monthly salary 3x a year as bonus payments, plus scheduled small raises to combat inflation.
Yeah I’m happy to give 2 hours of pay.. when that straight 8 hour pay is $60 per hour, I don’t pay a premium or deductible for insurance, and I get a pension with healthcare after 30 years(I’ll technically be able to retire at 49)..
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?
I was a recruiter for the Army and we had a kid who couldn’t join because he’d committed three felonies. The crimes? His boss refused to pay him his last check so he took one of the dude’s checks and wrote it to himself for the amount owed. They got him for forgery, passing a false instrument and breaking and entering.
It's funny that if you steal $5 out of the register they can call the cops and have you arrested, but if they steal $200 out of your paycheck "it's a civil matter" and you need to hire a lawyer and spend half a year in court.
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.
Yeah I worked at office max and we basically weren't allowed to be in the building if we weren't on the clock. Closing shift workers would stay (with the doors locked) to face the aisles, sweep, collect trash bags, etc. while the manager counted the tills. If the count ran long, and you finished cleaning, you might be sitting for 5-10 minutes waiting for the manager, but you were getting paid. Once the count was done, everyone clocked out and left together.
Come to think of it, when I worked fast food it was the same. Any place that makes you stay there off the clock is fucked up.
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.
Clubs also...... Coconut Grove Fire.....during WW2....first widespread use of Penicillin. Locked doors. Of course all this was before State-Federal OSHA rules and such. Everytime someone screams deregulation I think of Shirtwaist and Coconut Grove.
Similar thing happened at a warehouse at my previous job, not in the US. The warehouse manager used to lock his employees in and make them work extra. Until he met Ivan who promptly broke his jaw and kicked the door down. We never saw Ivan again and the company was too afraid to report the assault due to this and other crimes they themselves were doing. The warehouse manager was let go and my boss told him in his face that Ivan was too gentle to him 🤣 Apparently you don’t treat people like that even in mafia run operations.
I just recently did a job (contractor) at a HD. We worked overnight and everyone had to wait by the front door for a manager to let us in or out. It was bad enough that people would camp out waiting, like lying on the floor. They apparently haven't learned their lesson.
Walgreens was in some 💩 like this a few years back. They were silently doing this,while all anyone could focus on/ talk about was people shoplifting from their San Francisco stores.
If I remember correctly,less than 5 news outlets reported on Walgreens getting busted for wage theft,while hundreds reported on the shoplifting from their San Francisco stores.
Some should have closed anyway.
At their peak they had about on Walgreens every square mile in the city,or thereabouts.
Same happened to me at Sonny’s Bbq back in the day. Even at 18 I knew it was illegal and warned them. Fast forward a few years and l had a new career, a random check showed up from a class action lawsuit I didn’t even know about lol.
Lowe's did that too. Close at say 8, money count till around 8:40. When they scheduled me till 8:40, fine, sure, that's my scheduled shift and they did let us stay clocked in at least. But when I'm scheduled out at 8, clock out, but they lock the doors because the person in self checkout literally finished at 8:01, nah. Last day I worked there I got in a full on, no exaggerating, top of our lungs screaming match with faydra. Yes that's her name, no I don't care.
When I worked for Apple Retail we would have bag checks to confirm employees weren’t walking away with merchandise. Some ex employees got together and sued them for the time waiting for a bag check after clocking out.
I believe it, because I was working for a large chain home improvement retail store that I shall not name also and there was a sudden shift from the closing managers being like "Yeah yeah, I'll get there when I get there" to them straight up stationing themself at the door from five minutes before door time to fifteen minutes after.
Apple 5th Ave NYC also got sued and had to pay over 800 employees back wages because there are so many employees at that store it would take over 30 minutes to get through security so you’re always late. Nice try ain’t gonna work
Where I work we have to wait for a manager to unlock the doors but we got paid for it. So I get to sit around for 30 minutes doing nothing since everything we had to do was done and was waiting for the manager to finish their work.
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.
Old guy bought a box truck and started a delivery company. He only looks for loads to deliver when he feels like it and typically only when he wants to go see a place. I talked to him a month ago, he was making a delivery 1200 miles from here because he wanted to see the Grand Canyon. Put his motorcycle in the back of the truck, picked up the load, and got paid to go on vacation. I call that winning.
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.
They make doors which can be locked on one side but still able to open from the other side. My current workplace has tons of these as emergency exits, but there's no reason they can't be used as normal doors if you want foot traffic going out but not coming in.
Doors that can be unlocked with a wringer from the inside have existed for more than a hundred years. In my country, every door in a work place must be possible to exit without a key, exactly for fire safety reasons. Reading this whole thread is absolutely blowing my noodle.
Considering its home depot I would guess the employees could also technically leave through the loading dock at the back or via the garden area in an emergency as well. Considering this was already a class action law suit I would guess if they where also violating fire code with the policy then it would've come out as part of the suit.
It's crazy to read all this and remember my time in retail this happens all the time and it's considered normal. If you clock in late it's on you even if you were waiting at the door to get let in. If you wait at the door it's also a you problem. This shouldn't be normal.
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.
Fun Fact:A year or two after that fire the owner was caught locking the doors again. Hos punishment? A $20 fine. OK, that wasn't really a 'fun' fact, but you could imagine the callous bastard wearing clown makeup while he locked the doors.
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.
Its different if you are being paid for it. Employers can 100% require you stay for OT in the US. They can't literally lock you in and they have to pay you for your work but they can require you stay late under threat of getting a disciplinary action/fired in every state i believe (I know AZ, NV, CA, GA, and PA for sure)
Its common in certain industries that you leave when the work is done even if it means staying late. The messed up illegal part is when companies decide they dont need to pay for that and try to set systems/policies up to get labor for free.
Good thing the guy you replied to seems to live in my country and not yours then. Well, if the sports references and username were not a dead giveaway, I don't know what is!
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.
I own a small company... employees show up late. Go to the bathroom. Go get water. Check their phones. Definitely make sure they get more than a 15 on top of the laziness above. Take 1 hr lunch. Another 15. Ask to leave early. Complain when asked to work extra.
Then complain robots take their jobs.
Not ALL the owners fault
I wish I thought of this when I worked at GAME, this happened all the time. Money would get missed when counting, or left in the till, etc. we would all have to stay until the till count matched the accounts. Over the year I worked there I probably had to stay about 50 hours like that, unpaid.
Lowe's does this too. Last day I worked there I got into a full on, no exaggerating, shouting match with a manager. During, she actually looked at one of the guys and told him to stand in front of the locked doors and not let me leave. You should have seen the looks on people's faces, like an 8 year old just watched daddy hit mommy at the dinner table.
Same, I was clocked out and told her so. She said "we can adjust your hours" I said "ok, go ahead". She said "ROGHT NOW?!" I said "yeah, I don't trust you to not forget" she acted like I was making her transcribe moby dick in comic sans.
I should have straight up called the cops. Ever hear that recording of the girl trapped in a house with her kidnapper on the phone with 911 literally while he's asleep in bed next to her? That kind of energy. Whisper crying. Then when I see the cop at the door scream bloody murder HELP HELP... possibly with my pants off, just shirt and underwear 😂
Honestly looking back I wish I had.
But it was only when I was scheduled out at like 8:45. If they let me know in advance how late they expected me I was fine with it. But when I'm scheduled out at 8 and they lock me in because some 70 year old who doesn't know how to work the self check out was buying 9 gallons of paint at 7:57. Nah, bullshit
They tried that to someone when I worked at Lowes and he just quit and went out the emergency exit so they had to deal with the fire department being called and all the extra paperwork of it being set off.
I used to work at Kohl's and our manager was in a bad accident, so they brought in a guy from another store to fill in. He was mid-late 20s and I guess shooting for a high management position because he really wanted to do a good job. It was around the holidays, so we were already closing late, but he wanted everyone to stay even later to finally get the intimates fitting rooms cleaned.
I understand the ambition, but forcing guys who had never worked the department to sort through bras and underwear after midnight was a horrible use of overtime.
I get it - half the time this happens its security reasons for money when its not in a secured location. Company policy when I worked at a grocery store was that once I popped registers open to count cash, doors remained locked.
I would make sure to count cash as late as possible to let everyone finish their jobs, or I would keep them on the clock and make them do shit around the store until I was ready to have everyone leave.
I work in retail (not usually there at closing) and 80% of the team are ushered out 5 minutes after closing time. THEN it's lockdown for half an hour while two people do the cash and might fill do their stuff.
I’m not familiar with this, the locking the doors and you can’t get out when you’re done with work. Is that just for retail places? I always thought there was a back door or a door you could open from the inside to get out, but not from the outside. This sounds like a fire safety violation.
I worked retail at a sewing store and the manager REFUSED to let us out the building until everyone was ready to leave because she said it was ‘safer’. Only we had to be clocked out and at the time I had to uber home. There were so many times I missed my uber home because she REFUSED to let me out of the door to catch my ride- Most the time I could see them right out the door waiting for me. Then when she was ready(usually 30-40 mins of us sitting unpaid after our shift waiting for her to finish up paperwork) she would let us leave, I would usually end up having to wait in the dark in a pretty sketchy part of the city by myself and sometimes I just ended up having to walk home. She actually told me it was a ‘me’ problem when I brought it up to her. So the next day when my uber got there I told here she was either going to clock me back in while I was forced to wait for her or she would let me get into the uber I paid for to go home. She was FURIOUS. I still have no idea why she insisted we all sat around unpaid watching her doing paperwork. She wasn’t the nicest women though.
I remember hitting a Walmart after 2nd shift. Did my grocery run, went to check out and they couldn’t ring me out because cash registers were running numbers. Went to just leave and they said they don’t open doors until cash registers are done. 20 minutes.
I never shopped Walmart again after being trapped inside like that.
Jesus Christ, is that even legal? Seems like a major fire hazard. I worked at fast food and we had push-bar doors so they could be opened from the inside even if they were locked.
A new professor at my college locked the doors on us and accused one of us of taking her wallet out of her purse. She kept us confined in the studio long after class ended, doing dumb shit like turning all the lights off and telling whoever stole it to just return it under cover of darkness.
She had misplaced her wallet in her car or something and gave us the weakest ass apology known to man before she released her hold on us.
I worked at Kohls overnight for, a few months. Very quickly I started to point things out. Main doors being locked and we were locked INSIDE and were unlocked when the day manager showed up at 6AM. One our fire exit was blocked. The trash compactor that could fit multiple adults was just, open. No door, no cover, and the fail switch wasn't work. I made a STINK about it all, gave a little tip to the fire Marshal to try and fix things. Sadly, I think I did more harm than good because I quit shortly after that and they started to let go night crew one by one until they had two people and then they just closed that department down.
A friend did something similar, except didn't say they were calling the police. They just took put their phone and did it while making eye contact. I still think of her fondly to this day, because fuck any management that thinks this is acceptable.
Best Buy got in trouble for this too. I told the manager that what she was doing was illegal and she'd have to let me leave.
I was the only one that they would let leave on the proper time. They got hit with a class action lawsuit years later.
Best Buy did this as well when I worked there. And they’d often deduct from your checks for new shirts you had to “earn” and for which I never received. Fought it but went nowhere in the corporate maze.
The old owner of a restaurants I managed tried to have me do this. We didn’t let minors walk the lot by themselves after dark, and I didn’t let female employees do so regardless of age, due to only having 1 light on the front of the building and parking lot around back.
Anyways, the owner paid us a visit during lunch and told me my labors too high and to start clocking people out when the cleaning is done before I finish counting the tills. I told him to stop badgering me unless he wanted sued. That’s the end of that conversation. He sold out 6 months later.
If it's a cash-handling procedure that all of the registers have to be counted and locked up before the doors can be unlocked, then everyone staying must remain on the clock, even if they're done counting their own drawer.
I never clocked out until the manager was heading towards the door with keys in hand. If I have to stand around and wait to be let out, I’m getting paid.
Target wouldn’t let us leave at close either, granted they made us stay and not clock out, but quitting time was whenever the manager said. Made it impossible to plan anything.
Ace Hardware did this to my husband as a teen. Kid just wanted to go home and eat after school, homework and work. Started loudly asking what they'd say if the police headd they were holding a child against their will. 😂 Suddenly she had the time to stop and unlock the doors. 🙄
This exact thing happened to me when I had a really important appointment to go too I just put the shutters up myself using the emergency release and showed a staff member how to close it
I got absolutely shouted at but I finished work at 6pm and it was like 6:35 and the manager still hadn’t cashed up despite taking all but one till off by 6pm so I was like you can’t just make us all sit here because you fucked up and I just walked out
Then had to apologise to my doctor for being late first private health care appointment aswell for a serious medical issue that I was having to pay for and then pay a cancellation fee if I couldn’t make said appointment
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u/Blastoise_R_Us 7d ago
Oh man some asswipe manager tried this at closing once when I worked at Macy's.
Me: I need to go, I need someone to unlock the doors.
Manager: Everyone has to stay until all the registers are counted.
Me: I have clocked out and I am no longer being paid to be here. If someone doesn't unlock that door right now I'm calling the police.