News Article

Home Depot sued for alleged payroll shaving scheme

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Published: January 01, 2038

Two former Home Depot employees have filed a lawsuit seeking class action, alleging hours were routinely shaved from payroll reports and wages were cut improperly from hundreds of workers' paychecks in New York.

New York-based filed the case in the U.S. District Court of New York for the Eastern District on July 19 on behalf of former Home Depot bookkeepers Dora Hernandez and Debra Gutierrez. They claim Atlanta-based The Home Depot Inc.(NYSE: HD) violated state and federal labor laws at a store in Flushing, N.Y.

In a prepared statement, Home Depot said it is "committed to supporting all employment laws and practices for the benefit of its associates. While we are aware of the complaint that was filed in the Eastern District of New York, we have not had an opportunity to review the allegations in the complaint. Once we review it, we look forward to responding to its allegations in the appropriate forum."

The suit alleges Home Depot store managers were pressured to keep labor costs low and that a Flushing store manager ordered computer payroll records to be altered in violation of federal Fair Labor Standards Act and New York state labor laws.

According to the suit, after Hernandez objected to the scheme, the manager was transferred out of the Flushing store and the practice stopped. He later returned as the store's head manager and the alleged scheme resumed. In October 2003, he fired Hernandez, who had worked for the company for more than five years, while she was on vacation. Gutierrez claims to have received the same instructions from the manager to shave payroll hours after Hernandez left the company.

"We brought this suit because this type of activity hurts the workers who can least afford it," Hernandez said. "Most people working at companies like Home Depot need every penny they earn, and we certainly earned what we believe we are owed."