February 23, 2012
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Aubrey Bowser
A Chicago area man has accused an electronic shop of firing him because he’d been selected for jury duty–and a judge has ruled the complaint has merit.
Chief Judge James Holderman appointed an attorney to represent James Henders, who was fired in January by the hhgregg electronics and appliance store in Chicago’s Arlington Heights.
According to the judge’s filing, Henders was hired as a full-time electronic sales associate on August 8, 2011. The store opened for business in September, and sales have been slow since. That’s prompted warnings to sales associates, including Henders, about earning insufficient commissions. (Associates are hourly employees guaranteed to make at least minimum wage, or $8.25 per hour. If they earn enough commission to make more than minimum wage in a two-week pay period, they keep the extra; if not, they’re paid minimum wage, but they’re required to pay back the deficiency in future pay periods.)
Henders told the judge he had received warnings for being “in draw,” or not pulling in enough commission to break even with minimum wage, but so had all the other sales associates. (As of Feb. 17, the judge had not received any response from hhgregg, according to the filing.)
On Jan. 17, Henders reported for jury service and was selected to hear United States v. Hollnagel, a criminal trial that would last six to eight weeks. At its center are accusations of a fraudulent financing scheme prosecutors say deprived investors of profits from commercial aircraft sales.
Three days after Henders told his supervisors of his selection for the trial, they told him that per company policy, he was being fired for receiving three warnings about being “in draw.” But only one other sales associate was fired for being “in draw,” and that associate was allowed to transfer to the warehouse instead of being fired outright.
“Moreover, it is plausible to infer that the real reason for Mr. Henders’ termination was his jury service, because the only difference between Mr. Henders and the other similarly situated sales associates is that Mr. Henders had just informed hhgregg that he would need to miss work for six to eight weeks because of his jury service,” the judge wrote.
Hhgregg’s stated jury duty policy is that it pays its employees minimum wage for up to 30 days of jury service, with 50 percent pay after that.
Holderman wrote that the store policy provides a plausible motive for hhgregg’s actions, because “hhgregg may have fired Mr. Henders to avoid paying him under the policy.”
Hhgregg’s corporate headquarters had no comment to Chicago’s Daily Herald.
If found guilty–and the judge notes that the claim is “likely but not certain to have merit”–hhgregg could be liable for back pay, attorney fees and civil penalties. It would also likely have to re-hire Henders.
Photo credit: Thinkstock
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Aubrey Bowser 3 months ago
that would be pretty tough if your employee were stuck on a long trial.