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related class actions filed each year
has continued to increase,” Dollar
General, which had sales of $16
billion last year, wrote in its 2010
annual report. In addition to litigation under the Fair Labor Standards Act, female managers sued
the company in a class action alleging the company systematically
underpaid them compared with
male counterparts. The case was
settled for $19 million last year.
Wanda Womack, the lead plaintiff in the sex discrimination case,
worked as a manager for 11 years
at different stores in Alabama.
Like other longtime managers,
Womack said the heavy workload
at her store led to wear and tear
on her body. She eventually got
hurt lifting heavy boxes and required a series of rotator cuff surgeries, she said.
She went on a leave of absence
with workers’ comp, but her job
came to an end when it was apparent she could no longer lift 40
pounds, according to court filings.
Womack filed her lawsuit after
she was let go.
“It really took 20 years off my
life because of all the muscle
pains. I have back injuries, I have
neck injuries,” Womack said.
As for Dollar General, “They’re
HUFFINGTON
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popping up everywhere,” she said.
“They just keep getting bigger and
bigger and bigger.”
A SQUEEZE ON WORKERS
Like other retailers, the dollarstore chains budget payroll hours
to individual stores based on
sales, geography and other closely
watched metrics. It’s up to store
managers to find a way to hit their
sales goals and remain operational
while coming in under their payroll ceiling.
Managers’ quarterly bonuses
— a critical supplement for many,
given average salaries in the midto high-$30,000s — hinge on
their ability to keep stores profitable on thin margins. (According to salary data from Glassdoor.
com, Walmart store managers
earn well over twice the salary of
dollar-store managers, likely because their stores and workforces
are so much larger.)
For managers, that means being stingy with the hours given
to part-time workers, and then
handling whatever work gets left
behind. Many managers said they
feel no different from the people
they supervise, except th at their
hours are longer. The per-hour
pay rate often works out to be
roughly equal.
“I’ve managed other retail
stores. This was different,” said