[Vision2020] Not the Kind of Employer I want in My Town

[Tom Hansen]

>From "CNN Money" at:

http://tinyurl.com/48ujhk

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Wal-Mart to pay $6.5M in labor case

A judge rules against the retailer in a lawsuit saying the company shorted 
worker break time and forced employees to work off the clock.
Last Updated: July 1, 2008: 5:01 PM EDT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A judge has ruled against Wal-Mart in a class-action 
lawsuit, saying the discount retailer violated state labor laws more than 
2 million times, including cutting worker break time and "willfully" 
allowing employees to work off the clock.

Dakota County Judge Robert King Jr. on Monday ordered Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 
to pay $6.5 million in compensatory damages, but Wal-Mart could end up 
paying more than $2 billion after a jury in October considers civil 
penalties and punitive damages.

"We believe that this award not only helps the individual clients, but it 
also sends a message to Wal-Mart that it has to pay for its mistakes," 
said Justin Perl, an attorney representing the former Wal-Mart employees 
named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore said Tuesday that the Bentonville, Ark.-
based company disagrees with portions of the judge's decision and is 
considering an appeal.

"Our policy is to pay every associate for every hour worked and to make 
rest or meal breaks available to every employee," Moore said, adding that 
many Wal-Mart employees who testified during the trial said they were 
getting breaks and being paid properly.

"That said, we're always going to take seriously any sort of allegations 
of our policy not being followed," she said.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) shares rose 66 cents, or 1.2%, to $56.87 in 
afternoon trading.

The class-action part of the lawsuit represented 56,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's 
Club employees in Minnesota, and covered a period from September 1998 
through January 2004.

Violations in other states
The ruling, which was given to the parties Monday evening, comes after 
judgments against Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania and California found similar 
violations. In Pennsylvania, workers won a $78.5 million judgment in 2006 
for working off the clock and through rest breaks. A $172 million verdict 
against Wal-Mart in 2005 found the company illegally denied lunch breaks 
in California. Wal-Mart is appealing those rulings.

Wal-Mart has also settled a Colorado suit over unpaid wages for $50 
million.

Perl said the former employees involved in the Minnesota case were able to 
show that Wal-Mart violated their rights.

"It's been a long and tough road for them," Perl said of his 
clients. "These are individuals working hard to make a living at roughly 
less than $10 an hour, and many of them testified and many records 
established that they were missing breaks, missing meals and working off 
the clock."

Moore pointed out that the 3 1/2-month trial also revealed that some Wal-
Mart employees had missed breaks or meals voluntarily. "We don't believe 
the employer is at fault when that's the case," she said.

But the judge ruled otherwise, finding that Wal-Mart violated its contract 
nearly 70,000 times by failing to pay employees for off-the-clock work. 
The judge said Wal-Mart should have known the employees were working off 
the clock while at computer-based training terminals and "willfully 
allowed" it to continue. The company also failed to provide employees with 
rest breaks more than 1.5 million times and shortened employees' breaks 
more than 44,000 times, according to the order.

Wal-Mart was also found in violation of statutes relating to making and 
keeping employee time records, and failing to let employees have any time 
for a meal break. While the plaintiffs won't receive compensatory damages 
for those violations, Wal-Mart is subject to a $1,000 civil penalty for 
each incident. 

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Seeya at Friendship Square at 12:00 noon on Friday, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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