Class Action Alleges Home Depot Failed to Pay Wages for Off-the-Clock Work

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Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. faces a proposed class action that claims the home improvement retailer has failed to properly pay employees for every hour worked and provide appropriate meal and rest breaks.

The 32-page case in California alleges Home Depot owes certain workers unpaid minimum and overtime wages due to the retailer’s alleged practices of rounding down employees’ hours to the nearest quarter of an hour and requiring them to put in unpaid time off the clock.

The lawsuit, filed by a former employee, says it is Home Depot’s policy to round down, or “shav[e],” for its own benefit employees’ clock-in and clock-out times at the beginning and end of their shifts and meal periods to the nearest quarter of an hour, resulting in the workers not being paid for every hour worked. Further, the case claims that whenever employees work a closing shift, they’re required to clock out, wait at the front of the store for the other employees to clock out, and then leave after Home Depot’s management armed the alarm system. This amounts to work time for which the employees were not paid, the filing argues.

“Therefore, Defendants suffered, permitted, and required their hourly non-exempt employees to be subject to Defendants’ control without paying wages for that time,” the complaint contests. “This resulted in Plaintiff and similarly situated employees working time for which they were not compensated any wages, in violation of California Labor Code sections 1194, 1197, and Wage Order 7.”

The lawsuit contends that as a result of the aforementioned practices, Home Depot owes workers unpaid minimum wages and, for weeks in which they put in more than 40 hours, unpaid time-and-a-half overtime.

The complaint goes on to claim that Home Depot employees are frequently denied 30-minute meal breaks and 10-minute rest breaks in accordance with California law. Per the suit, the California Labor Code dictates that workers are to be provided with an uninterrupted 30-minute meal break no later than their fifth hour of work and a second meal break no later than their tenth hour of work. The suit relays that if a worker is not relieved of their duties for the full length of a break, including by being required to remain on an employer’s premises, they are to be provided with one hour of pay at their regular rate in lieu of a law-compliant meal break.

The lawsuit alleges that Home Depot’s practice of rounding down or shaving employees’ clock-in and clock-out times for meal breaks has deprived them of the full 30-minute breaks to which they were entitled by law. Per the case, the workers were not paid premium wages for non-compliant breaks.

The suit further claims that Home Depot workers were not provided with 10-minute rest breaks for every four hours worked (or major fraction thereof) and not paid an additional hour of wages at their regular rate for every missed rest break.

According to the case, Home Depot’s alleged pay practices have caused workers to be deprived of timely wages, accurate wage statements, and timely final wages in accordance with California law.

The lawsuit was initially filed in August 2021 in Los Angeles County Superior Court and removed to California’s Central District Court three months later. The case was then transferred to the state’s Southern District Court on March 1, 2022.

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