Store managers for Dollar General stores were awarded $35 million plus in an unpaid overtime case decided by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Morgan v. Family Dollar Stores, Inc., No. 07-12398 (11th Cir. December 16, 2008). The court ruled that 1424 store managers were due $17,788.029.74 in unpaid overtime and an equal amount as unliquidated damages based on Dollar General's willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
- store manages spent 80-90% of their time performing manual labor tasks such as stocking shelves, running the cash registers, unloading trucks, and cleaning the parking lots, floors and bathrooms
- performing manual labor was included in the job description as "Essential Job Functions" of the store managers
- store managers rarely exercised any discretion because the operations manuals or district managers controlled virtually every aspect of a store's day-to-day operations
- store managers were closely supervised by district managers, who exercised practical managerial authority over each store
- the store managers' pay rate was only slightly higher than the hourly rate of their assistant store managers
These factors led the court to conclude that "sweeping corporate micro-management, close district manager oversight, and fixed payroll budgets left store managers little choice in how to manage their stores and with the primary duty of performing manual, not managerial, tasks." Therefore, the Dollar General store managers did not fall within the "executive exemption" to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Another class action lawsuit for overtime was recently filed by misclassified store managers in Jacksonville, Florida. See "Misclassified Managers Sue Dollar General for Overtime."
Store managers for Lush Cosmetics filed suit also in Florida claiming that they were misclassified as exempt from overtime. See "Claiming They Were Misclassified Managers Sue for Overtime."
Robert L. Abell
i was a store manager than i was diagnosed with breast cancer i still continued to work till surgery than i filled out fmla papers to the manager but who knows what he did with them cause i called cooperate and they never received them.while i was in hospital i called to see how things were going to here everyone including store manager my self was fired. they said money had been stolen but i was in hospital at time. so when i was released to come back i called cooperate they said i had no job but could reapply. i was so shocked cause i was very hard worker alot i was there day and night just to get freight out they always had me run with a very few hours for the employees it was bad. many times i asked for help maybe from the other stores but that never happened. they never listen to my suggestions which i thought were worth listening to. the customers loved me and ask for me when i was no longer there. but with all the hours and dedication i put in that store. no extra pay and to hear because i had cancer and the manager never did anything with the fmla papers i had no job and the ideas i thought would help never happened but now that im not there they sure used alot of suggestions and problems that needed addressed was taken care of alot of them anyway. i said i thought we needed security system or a security at door and walking around store also i said to much merchandise for that little store and i see they did away with alot of merchandise. well they lost out cause i went far and beyond then most managers would!!!!!! THEY OWE ME AND ThEY HAVE NOT HEARD THE LAST OF ME CAUSE THEY DID ME WRONG. SO,SO WRONG!!!!!!! how degrading it was to hear on dollar general voice mail for all stores to hear that all employees and manager fired for stealing money. i kept the voice mail cause i may need it.
Posted by: Karla Lupis | January 01, 2010 at 05:57 AM