CHARLOTTE — If you applied for a job at a Lowe's Home Improvement store in the last few years, you might get a letter soon offering you $50.
We checked into this for you, and it's not a scam.
Mooresville-based Lowe's is hammering out a settlement on a class action lawsuit that could cost the company tens of millions of dollars.
People who applied to jobs at Lowe’s between October 2012 and July 2015 have started receiving letters offering a $50 Lowe’s gift card or a $35 check because of slip-ups on background checks.
“That's a difficult statute to be honest. It has a lot of technicalities and intricacies to it,” said attorney Tamara Huckert with the Charlotte-based firm Strainese.
She says background checks fall under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and it’s not common, but issues do pop up.
Here are the basics on this case: several people brought the lawsuit to the federal court in Charlotte in 2013.
One plaintiff, Jason Brown, says he applied for an assistant manager job at a store in Texas back in 2011.
Lowe's bought a background check from a company called Lexis-Nexis.
Lexis-Nexis, the suit says, had "several entries of criminal history information that belong to a different Jason Brown."
Lowe's told Brown they wouldn't hire him, according to Brown's lawyers, because of the criminal history.
You're supposed to give applicants an opportunity to dispute that prior to taking action.
Another plaintiff says a felony conviction which was later overturned led to his dismissal as an applicant.
There's another problem that came up in court.
The plaintiffs' lawyers say Lowe's had a phrase inside the form applicants had to sign to approve a background check.
The liability waiver basically said an applicant couldn’t sue Lowe’s or Lexis-Nexis over the background check. Ironically, the plaintiffs are suing over that waiver.
Huckert says they have a case on that, “[Lowe’s] might think they have a valid release, but if they have it on the wrong form, it doesn't count.”
Lowe's isn't admitting wrongdoing, but the claims could affect more than 450,000 people.
That could cost them more than $22.5 million. It shows why companies should sweat the small stuff, Huckert says.
“You need to be careful, and make sure that you're following the laws, and the processes that you're using to hire applicants, because it can be a big deal,” she said.
People applying for a claim settlement, are filing to object, or want to waive the settlement to file their own claim need to file that before May 16th.
There's a hearing at the federal court in Charlotte in June when a judge will decide whether they'll accept the settlement.
We reached out to Lowe's for comment several times for comment Thursday. They wouldn't go on camera, but noted they're only settling part of the original complaint.