Lawsuit Against TJX Companies Cites Alleged ‘Hostile Work Environment,’ Wage and Hour Missteps

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The TJX Companies, Inc. faces a lawsuit filed by a former assistant store manager who claims she’s owed unpaid overtime wages and additional damages stemming from alleged violations of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The complaint states the plaintiff worked for the TJX Companies from October 2016 through February 2018. The woman put in between 50 and 60 hours per week without being paid time-and-a-half overtime wages, the suit says.

The plaintiff claims that she, throughout her employment, would request days off to attend her autistic son’s Individualized Education Program meetings or doctor’s appointments. According to the case, the plaintiff’s supervisor would deny such requests, reportedly responding that “she also had a husband and kids at home to take care of."

“[The supervisor] created a hostile work environment for [the plaintiff], and was never accommodating to [the plaintiff] and her son’s disability,” the case alleges. 

Further, the lawsuit charges the plaintiff accumulated 86 hours of paid sick time that she was never allowed to use to take care of her son. Instead, the woman was allegedly required by her supervisor to use unpaid personal days.  

The lawsuit then details two instances where the plaintiff received write-ups from her supervisor for supposedly poor work performance. In early February 2018, the plaintiff reportedly reached out to an assistant district manager to start the process of requesting FMLA leave, as her son was “extremely sick at the time.” The lawsuit claims the FMLA process went nowhere, as the plaintiff was fired about a week later without receiving bonuses to which she was supposedly entitled through her hiring agreement. Moreover, the plaintiff alleges she never received an additional “President Club” bonus, which the case says the president of TJX pays when an individual store exceeds company goals.