People who worked at Rite Aid allege that they were given the title of assistant manager, but all that led to was increased hours at work and inadequate pay while still doing the duties associated with a regular cashier or stock person—basically, non-managerial duties.Sometimes, the big promotion just is not what you thought it would be. It used to be that promotions were a step on the corporate chain—that once you were moved up to assistant manager, you were on your way. Sure, you did not have the authority of a manager, but you were getting there. You had more authority than you used to, got more respect and no longer had to perform the tasks that you used to. It used to be that a promotion was a reward for doing good work—and it was a sign that the company had faith in your abilities.
Now, however, a promotion may be no more than a company's way of saving money. That is what is implied by lawsuits filed by people who allege they were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay. They say that they were given the job title of assistant manager, but received none of the authority that goes with the position. Meanwhile, they still performed the duties of a regular, hourly employee but were expected to work overtime without overtime pay. Essentially, they say they were given a promotion in name only.
The thing is that employees count on their pay to help them get by—and they count on overtime hours to supplement their income. Jim, a former Rite Aid employee, writes that lack of overtime pay has gone on for years. "I was 'encouraged' to put more hours in to make the store the best. Back then I was young and had a growing family and needed the job," Jim writes.
Misclassifying people as exempt from overtime impacts at least 2 groups of people. First, and most obviously, those who are misclassified are expected to work long hours without being properly paid for their time. They lose out on their pay and they also lose out because they do not get adequate time off work. They work twice as hard without being properly compensated for doing so.
However, misclassification affects another group of people, too—the hourly people. After all, they miss out on overtime hours, money that could help them out a lot. Think about it: if an employer has 2 people he can ask to work overtime, 1 who he has to pay time and a half to and 1 that he does not have to pay extra to, who is he most likely to ask to work those extra hours? So, the misclassified employee loses out on pay and the hourly employee misses out on extra hours and extra money. In the end, both groups of employees suffer, while the company gets to save all that money.
READ MORE RITE AID LEGAL NEWS
The Rite Aid lawsuit alleges that assistant managers were regularly forced work more than 40 hours per week without receiving overtime pay. Plaintiffs further allege that they were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay because most of their duties were non-managerial and they did not have authority or discretion in their job.Overtime exemption is not solely based on a person's job title—if it were, then everyone could be classified as an assistant manager so that a company would not have to pay overtime. Instead, overtime exemption takes into account the duties that a person performs in his or her role at a company. If that person has a management title but performs non-managerial duties the majority of time at work, then he may still be eligible for overtime pay.
If this sounds like something you are dealing with, it just may be worth your while to look into it.
