A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against Hy-Vee Inc., alleging the grocery store chain violates federal labor laws by failing to pay overtime for department managers.
www.kcci.com
This is more interesting than just Hy Vee being involved. The plaintiffs are going after overtime hours for salaried workers.
I'm kind of torn on this one.
When I worked there 25 years ago, I worked in a number of salaried management positions. I did work a lot more than 40 hours a week on a regular basis. During this time, I did a lot of grunt work, but I also did "manage" people. I told employees what to do, when to do it, when they could go home, when they could go on break, customers came to me if they had issues, replacing sick employees on the schedule, made sure I handed off the store to the next manager in charge. That was when I was 2nd Assistant/Shift Manager.
When I was night stock manager, I got paid by the hour, and yes it was 90% me just stocking shelves.
"They do not, the lawsuit claims, have responsibility for hiring, firing, disciplining or directing the work of others. As such, their work does not “materially differ from the duties of non-exempt, hourly paid employees,”
The big(Meat/Produce/Deli/Non-Foods) department managers back then were most salary w/bonus and could make some serious coin, but they all worked really hard. All of them did manual labor, but they also did managerial tasks. They did the things I listed as well as ordering, planning catering, scheduling, pricing, etc.
Maybe it's changed, but I can't imagine they still don't have managers doing these things.