... Lowe’s had the right to control, and did in fact control, all aspects of installation jobs by, including requiring that the installers to identify themselves as “installers for Lowe’s” or by saying “I work for Lowe’s”; wear Lowe’s hats and shirts at work sites; use signs stating “Lowe’s Installation”; attend training by Lowe’s; and comply with Lowe’s production requirements. The complaint also alleged that: • Lowe’s Production Office managed each installation project;

• Lowe’s set the fees to be earned by each home improvement contractor;

• Lowe’s imposed a non-compete covenant on installers; and

• Lowe’s marketed the contractors’ services on its website on an “Installation” page that provided “Let Us Do The Installation For You” with our “trained installers,” who services were “guaranteed by Lowe’s warranty.”

In New York and Virginia, workers say they were required to arrive well before the start of business hours and work after the restaurants closed without getting minimum wage and/or overtime pay. They also accused the chain of using a centralized time-keeping system that shaved hours of their work from their records and made them work off the clock doing non-tipped tasks such as cleaning and preparing food in bulk. In Massachusetts, the lawsuit said that workers who put in more than 40 hours a week, the threshold for receiving time and a half in overtime pay, worked any additional hours off the clock. They also say waitstaff were forced to give some of their tips to host staff, who are paid the full hourly minimum wage, reducing the waitstaff’s pay to below the required minimum wage.

Wage theft can take many forms, but if you're in any doubt that it's not some fringe practice, that in fact major companies practice it, check out these two stories. A lawsuit involving workers misclassified as independent contractors by Lowe's is being settled for as much as $6.5 million, plus more than $1.5 million in legal fees. Misclassification is when an employer gets out of paying things like the minimum wage and overtime, workers compensation, and benefits by saying the worker is an independent contractor. In the Lowe's case , the company made that claim even though, according to the complaint leading to the settlement:But, you know, they were totally independent contractors. Meanwhile, TGI Friday's faces wage theft allegations by 42,000 workers who say they weren't paid minimum wage or overtime:It's theft. It's breaking the law. It should be penalized as such.

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