[Vision2020] Judge OKs Wal-Mart Class Action

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 12, 2006) Spokesman Review -

 

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Judge OKs Wal-Mart class action 

Workers may sue retailer over alleged unpaid hours

Associated Press

January 12, 2006

 

PHILADELPHIA - A judge approved a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. by employees in Pennsylvania who say the company pressured them
to work off the clock, claims that mirror those in suits filed around the
country.

 

A California jury last month awarded Wal-Mart workers $172 million for
illegally denied lunch breaks, while Wal-Mart settled a similar Colorado
case for $50 million.

 

In Pennsylvania, the lead plaintiff's suit alleges she worked through breaks
and after quitting time - eight to 12 unpaid hours a month, on average - to
meet work demands.

 

 

"One of Wal-Mart's undisclosed secrets for its profitability is its creation
and implementation of a system that encourages off-the-clock work for its
hourly employees, ..." Dolores Hummel, who worked at a Sam's Club in Reading
from 1992-2002, charged in her suit.

 

The suit was approved for class certification late last month by
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Mark I. Bernstein. The class could include
nearly 150,000 current or former employees who worked at a Wal-Mart or Sam's
Club in the state since March 19, 1998.

 

"We strongly deny the allegations in this lawsuit. Wal-Mart's policy is to
pay associates for every minute they work," the Bentonville, Ark.-based
retailer said in a statement.

 

Wal-Mart earned $10 billion in 2004.

 

The class-certification decision followed days of hearings that examined
Wal-Mart's pay records, break policies and even electronic systems that show
when employees are signed on to cash registers or other machines, said
plaintiff's lawyer Michael Donovan.

 

"There's a lot of electronic evidence, that when you examine it shows that
these people aren't getting breaks, but they're continuing to run the cash
register or do inventory or whatever," Donovan said.

 

Wal-Mart, which is appealing the California verdict, may also pursue an
appeal of the class-action certification in Philadelphia, according to
lawyer Martin D'Urso.

 

The certification alone does not prove any wrongdoing, the company's
statement noted.

 

The suit was initially filed in 2002. At the time, Wal-Mart employed more
than 31,600 people in 123 stores in Pennsylvania, the suit said.

 

Hummel had to work off the books to meet quotas on cakes she made in the
bakery, Donovan said. She was eventually dismissed over her productivity
level, he said.

 

The California jury award - which includes $115 million in punitive damages
- covers about 115,000 class members. That suit involved unpaid lunch
breaks.

 

Hummel's suit cites a Wal-Mart corporate policy that gives hourly employees
one paid 15-minute break during a shift of at least 3 hours and two such
breaks, plus an unpaid 30-minute break, on a shift of at least 6 hours.

 

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Take care, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

 

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"A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and bad men." 

 

- Thomas Paine (English Writer, 1737-1809)

 

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