Every year, the employees receive a benefits packet that lists a duplicate of the previous year's benefits. If the employee wishes to make changes, they call it in; if not, the employee doesn't have to call in anything.
After years of this practice, in 10/01, they decided to add to the benefits list (without employees' knowledge or consent) a $25.00 surcharge which is usually applied for those whose spouses work.
Spouses, such as myself, do not work, and the employee does not need to have the $25.00 surcharge taken out of his/her paycheck.
To our knowledge, some 6,000 employees whose spouses didn't work and were used to having the benefits repeat identical from year to year just filed it away and did not call in for any changes. Unbeknownst to many employees, this $25.00 surcharge was "snuck in" knowing full well that employees would never pick up on it until it was too late to make changes.
From hearsay, they fixed and adjusted the surcharge for 5,000 employees; but the other 1,000 employees (including my husband) were told they could not change this to stop having the surcharge removed from their check ($1,300.00 per year). Their answer, pretty much, was tough luck!!
Also, Home Depot changed insurance carriers on some employees without ever informing them of it. These employees didn't find out until they went to a doctor (who took the last insurance but not the new one), and the new insurance company refused to pay the bill.
Home Depot is heartless, crooked, and sneaky to have done this to their employees. We never received a formal letter informing us of the added surcharge to the list of benefits of which we didn't need in the first place. They should be ashamed of themselves. They have no morals, scruples, or principles.
TJ
Milford, Pennsylvania