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Family Dollar Ordered To Pay Overtime Payment Of $33.2 Mln - Update Monday, April 10, 2006; Posted: 07:36 AM (RTTNews) - Monday morning, Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, LLC, a national law firm reported that on March 3rd a Tuscaloosa federal jury found retail store operator Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (FDO | charts | news | PowerRating) guilty of willfully violating labor standards. The jury found in less than two hours the company misclassified hourly employees as salaried managers to evade overtime-payment. The jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $19 million in back pay and owed overtime. As some plaintiffs had filed for bankruptcy, Judge U.W. Clemon, on Friday, March 31, 2006 reduced the verdict to $16.6 million. The judge liquidated the jury's award after siding with their belief that the company purposely violated the law, doubling the amount to equal $33.2 million. According to the law firm, some 1,424 current and past employees worked 60-80 hour workweeks without overtime compensation due to their classification as Store Managers. The overtime exemption could be claimed given the employee's primary duty is management of a department or subdivision and at least two or more full-time employees, as well as the authority to hire and fire employees. Whereas the evidence was strong against Family Dollar showing the plaintiffs actually spent only 10-20% of their time conducting such managerial duties, and the remaining time was spent doing manual labor such as unloading trucks, stocking shelves, mopping the floor, and running the cash register. The law firm brushed aside Family Dollar's intention to appeal the case expressing confidence that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals would uphold the verdict. The law firm also said since there are thousands of current store managers who were not plaintiffs in the Morgan case, the firm expects to file a new lawsuit on behalf of those individuals.
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