NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Past and present Assistant Store Managers of The Home Depot, Inc. stores across New Jersey won a significant victory on October 31, 2005 when the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted a motion to conditionally certify their lawsuit for overtime pay as a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA").
Plaintiffs filed their Complaints in August 2004, each claiming that Home Depot improperly classified its Merchant Assistant Store Manager and/or Sales Assistant Manager positions ("MASMs") as exempt. "The Home Depot misclassified MASMs under the FLSA to avoid paying overtime, even though the misclassified MASMs were required to work a minimum of 55 hours per week performing primarily non-exempt duties. The MASMs are owed substantial back overtime pay and, upon appropriate proof, liquidated damages as well," says Lee Squitieri of Squitieri & Fearon, LLP, one of the law firms that represent plaintiffs.
Now conditionally certified as a collective action, the collective action includes potentially thousands of MASMs who have worked at Home Depot, Inc. stores across New Jersey since August, 1998.
Plaintiffs and the collective class are represented by Squitieri & Fearon, LLP of New York and New Jersey; Deutsch Resnick, P.A. of New Jersey; Reitman Parsonnet, P.C. of New Jersey and Bahan & Associates of California.
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primezone.com/ca