Home Depot Assistant Manager Class Actions Consolidated

Last week, Riverside County Superior Court judge Roger Luebs (who also approved our J. Jill class action settlement) consolidated three lawsuits brought against The Home Depot on behalf of its assistant managers in California, and ruled that the employees can sue the company for unpaid overtime on a classwide basis.

The lawsuits allege that Home Depot made merchandising assistant store managers work 55 hours per week or more, even though they normally performed the same tasks as hourly workers, such as selling to customers, stocking shelves, and going to other stores to get merchandise . The class includes as many as 2,000 assistant managers from Home Depot's 186 California stores from July 30, 1997 forward.

These cases very often settle for more than $10,000 per claimant, which could make this a $20 million case or better. If you ask the plaintiffs' attorneys, they'll tell you the case is worth $100 million, which will be interesting to compare to their remarks when the case settles for less than that, and their fee application discusses how difficult and uncertain the case was....

Comments

[mary]

I am interested in your number of $10,000 per class member. Are you aware of a May 2005 Jams settlement with State Farm in mischaracterized duy case? I don't have a copy handy but it was close to $40,000 a class member. Would be interested in insights on your number. thanks

[Michael Walsh]

I said "very often settle for more than $10,000 per claimant," not, say, "up to $10,000." In general assistant manager claims tend to be smaller than claims in the insurance industry class actions, for two reasons: first, the employees tend to be more transient in the retail field, although Home Depot employees may be less so; second, the assistant managers (indeed, "assistant" anythings) tend to have lower compensation to begin with. You get a worker making $60,000 per year for an insurance company, and their overtime claims will be worth many times that of an assistant manager who might earn as little as $350 per week in the restaurant business. Again, Home Depot workers probably are better off than that, but I would be surprised to see them earning $60,000 per year.