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

[Sue Hovey]

And will peole quit shopping there?   No...

SueH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 6:34 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Not the Kind of Employer I want in My Town


> >From "CNN Money" at:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/48ujhk
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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