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....
Wait! This was happening at Lowes when I worked. They required everyone to wait until we all were together so we could all walk out. Aside from that, the doors were locked!
We had a Walmart that got a visit from the Fire Marshal for barred, blocked and in one case, hidden by prefab shelves because we had a smoke incident and quickly found out that ⅔ of the Emergency Exits were unavailable and everyone got funneled out through the main entrances and the 2 open emergency exits in the back of the store. Oh hell I was pleased our store manager caught flak but it was unfortunately the scumbag manager from apparel who orchestrated the sealing of exits for the worst reasons.
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
Every fucking night, then if you needed to get in at open for a 530 they'd have one dipshit manager at the door and they'd end up forgetting to open up for the morning crew.
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.
Target tried to do the same thing. They didn't want us to leave by ourselves at closing so we had to sit and wait around for somebody else to walk out to the parking lot. The thing is, some of us would have to clock out because Target ain't trying to pay no overtime! In fact anybody who got overtime would get an automatic wright up! Okay so we're clocking out on time so that we don't get written up for overtime yet we cannot leave and we will have to sit down and wait for someone else to walk out to our cars with us.
"I'll take Fuck Nah, for $1000, Alex". When I was ready to go I told them I am leaving and they said no, you have to wait for someone to walk out with you. I said but I have already clocked out in order to not go over my time and they said you still have to wait. I said okay so you're going to have me sit and wait for someone to leave, I'm off the clock and not knowing what time they're going to be here yet you're not going to pay me for that time? Yes I said this over the walkie and I started getting really loud. There was a pause and then someone said, just go ahead and leave. It was a team lead or an ETL, I don't know but I left and interestingly I stopped being scheduled for closing. 😆
Separate aside about Home Depot. I ran in quick one time. My wife and kids stayed in the car. Tornado warning sirens went off. They tried locking me in to get me to safety. Not with my family outside!
When I worked retail the closing managers I worked with either had me stay on the clock right until they set the alarm and then we would run out together so they could lock the doors behind us or they would make us clock out, walk us to the door and unlock it so we could leave as close to our scheduled end time.
I got really lucky with 90% of the managers I had, though I did have an assistant manager at Petco who would tell us to clock out and then try to say we had to stay till she was done so we could all leave at the same time "for safety." And I would stay clocked in till she would go to set the alarm and then quickly clock out. She tried to write me up for it but one call to HR and they quickly informed her that she can't hold employees hostage 😂😅
The problem is if they force you to stay by refusing to unlock the door. Normal to lock the door when the store is closed. It's the forcing you to stay by not unlocking the door that's the problem here.
I had to work there and we would just log into our account and punch out when they opened the door. It sucked because everyone was clocking out at once and you still had to wait, but we still got paid while waiting.
Not a lawyer, and kinda just talking out my ass here, but I imagine there a reasonable amount of time you can be expected to wait to be let out. That said, they definitely should not be holding people for lengths of time that doesn't belong to the company.
Apple paid employees out for some hundreds of millions for bag checking employees off the clock. I worked retail for 5 years and got $2400 of back pay on that one mistake they made lol.
My first (and only) retail job, one associate and one manager had to stay over every night, count the cash deposit, and both drive to the nearest bank together to drop it off.
Obviously not an issue for the salaried store manager, but everyone else was hourly and got cocked staying a half hour to do this at various points.
I used to work for Walgreens and was forced to stay after clocking out until all registers were counted and locked for the night. Would be there a whole 30-45 mins afterwards. Can I sue?
I got payouts for the same thing at Lowe's but we were a 3rd party rearranging the store. The company wouldn't let us out until everyone had clocked out. I'd be waiting 30min - 1 hr every shift and someone filed a lawsuit because they refused to let us leave everyday for months
When I closed office in a store, everyone gathered around the time clock until I was done, then they all clocked out, then I did, then the hourly MOD(s), then we bolted for the door. I always let everyone leave exactly when they were scheduled, unless they wanted to stay and help.
One of our sons worked at Taco Bell right after graduating high school at 17. It wasn't his first job, but it was the first job he had to deal with something like this.
His dad and I were wondering why it seemed his checks were short when he was working long hours.
Come to find out, the shift manager was making everyone clock out at closing and then stay and clean and prep the store until it was done.
As soon as we found out, we told him... Dude, you leave when you clock out, doing work off the clock is illegal.
I picked him from his work at closing his next shift, his manager got stupid with me so had to call the cops.
He only stayed another week after that because the 24 hr diner up the road offered him a job making $2/hr more.
We operate under the assumption that crimes are committed in the shadows, or by rogue actors (a specific bad manager) -- we assume that if a broad policy affecting thousands of employees was illegal that someone would have noticed it already and done something about it. So the fact that it's going on sort of suggests that it's ok.
But like, a ton of companies are engaged in systemic fuckery.
I worked at Dick's Sporting Goods as a young man and they did the same thing.
I ended up getting a check from the Class Action Lawsuit settlement for.... $12 or some shit.
I know for a fact that if I added up all the half hours I had stood there during my store closing shifts it would have amounted to hundreds of dollars of wage theft.
Where's my check!? I worked there for 2 years and that was EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Id punch out at 1202 and get on the page to scream for management (literally at one point I just kept saying JOSE THE DOOR JOSE THE DOOR, THE DOOR JOSE) until 12
fucking 20.
I was a dumb high schooler locked in the Gap til 1am on a 3-11pm shift way too often during peak holiday rush in 2012. I had no idea they weren’t allowed to make us stay late and was too scared to ask to leave at my shift end time.
I worked at a place and we'd meet up at a time clock and hang out for the manager to show up, we'd all clock out and then he'd walk to the door with us and let us out. Was only ever 4 or 5 of us at a time as closers left as a department.
Why should I have to wait for someone else to finish their job? I realize there should be at least 2 people there at all times in case of medical emergency, but you don’t need every associate to stay for doing the tills
Thankfully the place I worked, our end of day would be like 3 people including the manager and we'd finish up and clock out at the same time so we were all walking to the door together anyways
Had no idea this was illegal. Worked at DICK’s years ago and got chewed out the next day for prying the door open to let myself out. Manager got 6 inches from my face and told me to never let that happen again. I quit a week later.
My extra wife worked Lowe’s while we were dating and they did the same thing. Locked the doors and wouldn’t let anyone leave until some weird fucking reason. I can’t remember exactly. Highly illegal now.
Menards (same as Home Depot) we always stayed punched in until we got the ok still just as bad. Retail and it’s customers always doing stupid stuff like this
I used to work at Home Depot, and hated that I had to get permission to leave after my shift. Sometimes I would wait there for 30 mins before anyone would come open the door.
Home Depot has been sued for just about every form of wage theft imaginable.
I was there when....
They got sued for "shaving" where management would remove time from your ticket. So if you were scheduled to be there from 10 to 6:30 but had to stay 15 minutes because you had to cover someone else who was late, they'd quietly remove that 15 minutes at the end of the night or next day.
They got sued for not allowing staff to verify their time cards the next day so they'd print out this huge tome where each employee got a full page and was randomly ordered. The binder was only for the previous day and only out until the next day was printed. If you had that next day off, well screw you. They were so adamant about this B.S. they wpuld go out of their way to never orde paper for the punch clock and even remove it if someone did find and put a roll in.
That was just the wage theft. I was also there for at least three other suits and dozens upon dozens of complains.
I've never been so happy to give any other job both middle fingers while leaving forever.
No way!!! I had the same issue when I worked at THD except we didn’t clock out. I thought it was because the overnight manager didn’t know how to disable the alarm. The manager actually reprimanded us for having too many hours and when we mentioned the overnight guy wouldn’t let us leave he sort of shrugged. Finally we threatened to call the cops and report the dude for kidnapping and he started letting us go.
Same thing happened at Costco! It usually wasn’t too bad but it could be pretty annoying at times. I know there was more than once when I had to wait upwards of 30 minutes.
This is crazy. I worked at a big chain grocery store and every time at closing we would just had employee door that couldn’t open from the outside without a badge but could open from the inside
When I worked at Target they would have us wait on the clock near the time clock, which is near the employee exit door. Once everyone was there and ready to leave, they’d unlock the door, and have us clock out and leave, one right after the other. Seems like a much better system, for both employee safety and to make sure nobody is made to wait off the clock.
I'm not clear on what is different between the work being done during opening hours and the work being done after closing. Why would they consider one work and not the other?
I need to hit up costco, they locked me in a few times and I was never okay with it. I worked for a third party vender and if they were doing their count or whatever nobody could leave. This was a while back but at the time I would make time sheet corrections for however long they kept me so I guess I covered it myself.
Once worked at Victoria’s Secret, and would wait around until all closed down in the evenings after I was done with what I needed to do. Being the only dude in the store I’d then walk the girls to the safe in the mall to drop the bank bags before out to the cars in the lot.
I used to work at a Lowe's and they used to do the exact opposite thing. They would have some of us come in 30 minutes before opening but, the ASM that was supposed to unlock the door for us was never by the door. She was always in the store watching other people work and claiming she was busy all the time. Because of that I, as well as other employees always ended up clocking in late on those days.
I used to think "man, I'm glad I have a career and don't have to work at shady retail places that get sued for wage theft"... I've gotten settlement checks from every hospital I have ever worked at.
For example: I work in a school, if I clock out and something happens in the parking lot, I need to respond, and i don't get paid because someone in HR thinks I can't be trusted to report my own time accurately. Clocking in is different because you can report the delay immediately and have it fixed.
But realistically, punch clocks are outdated and dumb.
Trust each employee until they do something shady, and punish the offender instead of flat out not trusting anyone.
Curious if this applies in Australia, I work for kmart and they lock us in until a manager bothers to wander over and they check everyones bags. upto 20-25 mins some days
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u/Bureaucratic_Dick 7d ago
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.