PetSmart Faces Lawsuit For Charging Employees $5000 In Grooming School TRAP

PetSmart is being sued in Colorado for sending former dog groomers to collections as part of this scheme that they were doing for a training repayment agreement provision or TRAP because these people were getting popped for $5,000 after being fired or trying to leave for this academy that they went to. PetSmart was effectively turning these people into indentured servants. You have to work for us because you owe us money.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

PetSmart is being sued in Colorado for sending former dog groomers to collections as part of this scheme that they were doing for a training repayment agreement provision or TRAP. So essentially if you worked for them to be a dog groomer, they would send you to dog groomer school and you would owe them $5,000 for dog groomer school and the supplies that they gave you. And what PetSmart was doing is when these people who were making minimum wage were fired, then they were getting popped for $5,000, or quitting or trying to leave for this academy that they went to.

Yeah. What PetSmart was doing according to this lawsuit, was effectively turning these people into indentured servants. You have to work for us because you owe us money. We paid for you to go to this very subpar dog grooming school. We gave you these subpar shears and clippers to use, which is also what the employees allege. Like, their training was garbage. They did not learn how to properly groom these animals that they're supposed to be grooming. They didn't properly learn how to handle these animals in a way to not hurt the animals or themselves and the equipment that they were given, and the equipment alone was worth about $500, it falls apart. It's trash. So you locked us into these. You forced us to sign non-compete agreements, so we couldn't even go and be a dog groomer anywhere else for however many years you had in this contract. We are stuck here making minimum wage and a good portion of our paycheck goes right back to you for this training academy that you also run. So you're not actually losing money. But these employees became indentured servants to PetSmart, which is crazy.

Well, it's interesting. I had never heard of these TRAP agreements before. Non-compete agreements consistently on state courts have been being struck down. Even conservative states have said, hey, we don't like this. This is stifling the economy. This is stifling the worker. And then the previous administration had banned them on the federal level. That has been stopped now and the future enforcement of that is unclear. And so these TRAP provisions have seen a rise particularly, not just low income, but high income. I was pulling some reports here, and so I'll read those out. This one wants $24,000 to compensate the company for its lost profits if you leave. That was a healthcare staffing agency. Another one, an airline had a hundred lawsuits against departing pilots to enforce $20,000 against them. Republic Airways announced new pilot contracts required them to pay a hundred thousand dollars penalty if they leave within three years. Of course, the PetSmart one. And trucking companies were also requiring as much as $6,000 for trucking school if you left within three years. And of course, you do not have to be a genius to see how this would stifle the economy and hurt workers.

And look, these companies that are doing this, they don't view workers as human beings because we're absolutely not human beings to them. You're just a cog in the machine. You're a tool to greater profits and we will use that tool as long as we can. We will take advantage of it. We're gonna use the tool for things it may not be made for. But we're gonna do it and take advantage and squeeze every drop of money out of you. And by God, if we don't get our money out of you this way through work, we're gonna get it out of you in the lawsuits we file when you try to leave because we're mistreating you. It is a horrible situation for these workers and as you point out here, this is all over the place and it's spreading to more places. So this is just a horrifying future for American workers. And we'll see what happens with this lawsuit.