wal-mart ordered to pay 78.5 million

[almaty 19]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, must pay at least $78.5 million for violating Pennsylvania labor laws by forcing employees to work through rest breaks and off the clock, a jury found Friday.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Michael Donovan will also seek another $62 million in damages because the jury found that Wal-Mart acted in bad faith. Common Pleas Judge Mark Bernstein is expected to rule on that issue in the next few weeks.

The jury awarded the exact amount the plaintiffs sought, rejecting Wal-Mart's claim that some employees chose to work through breaks and that the loss of a few minutes' pay here or there was insignificant.

"It should send a message to corporate America that you can't say one thing and do another ... and that you should put people ahead of profits," Donovan said.

Payments to each plaintiff are expected to range from about $50, on up to a few thousand dollars, depending on how long they worked for the company, Donovan said. Wal-Mart must pay the plaintiffs' legal fees on top of the award.

Donovan argued that Wal-Mart's pay practices gave the company a competitive advantage. Wal-Mart is the nation's largest retailer with $10 billion in sales in 2004.

The Pennsylvania class-action suit involves 187,000 current and former employees who worked at Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs from March 1998 through May of this year. The jury found Thursday that Wal-Mart broke its contract, thereby violating state labor laws.

Lead plaintiff Dolores Hummel, a single parent, said she worked at a Sam's Club in Reading for 10 years to support her son. Over the years, the pressure to get more work done intensified, she said. Hummel said she worked eight to 12 unpaid hours a month, on average, to meet work demands.

"It had to be done, all these class actions, to show how we were treated working at Wal-Mart - working off the clock and not getting paid," said Hummel, 53. "It was all about production."

She was fired in 2002 after complaining about working conditions, she said.

Wal-Mart attorney Neal S. Manne said the company plans to appeal both the class certification and the jury's findings.

"I think a lot of employees who had short or missed breaks did it by personal choice," Manne told jurors in closing arguments Friday.

Donovan pointed out, though, that Wal-Mart computers were programmed to dock workers for every minute they signed in late. Those minutes of lost pay saved Wal-Mart stores in Pennsylvania $26 million over the course of a year, he said.

Donovan said he presented evidence during the five-week trial that employees were sometimes logged on to a cash register when they were not on the clock. He said Wal-Mart tried to avoid overtime at all costs, and told employees to work off the books if they had worked too many hours that week.

Wal-Mart had a corporate policy that gives hourly employees in Pennsylvania one paid 15-minute break during a shift of at least three hours and two such breaks, plus an unpaid 30-minute meal break, on a shift of at least six hours.

The jury rejected claims that Wal-Mart forced employees to work through the unpaid meal breaks.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based company is facing a slew of similar suits around the country.

Wal-Mart settled a Colorado case for $50 million and is appealing a $172 million award handed down last year by a California jury.

"This has set a benchmark for what the rest of these cases are worth," said lawyer Franklin D. Azar of Aurora, Colo., who worked on the California and Colorado cases.

"I've seen them change with the filing of these lawsuits," Azar said. "They've done a lot of stuff to basically clean up."

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

bunch of cheap chopf#cks!

Daniel

:energetic:

[Widge 0]

I have worked at Walmart for a year and know that since I have been there that breaks are insisted upon and that working off the clock is the biggest cardinal sin in the firm - after a certain amount of time as a cashier you are locked out of the register if you dont take a break and if you aren't clocked in you can't log on.

One thing that has astounded me and might surprise some who forever rant about their appalling wages constantly - every year employees get an evaluation and a merit raise. If you work there for years this actually amounts to a tidy sum such that you can have a cashier earning $20 plus an hour (this practice is now goingto be phased out due to the fact that a long term cashier can effectively earn more than managers.

I have never ever worked anywhere where two people doing the same job can be earning big buck differences. So yes as with any employer there may be problems but believe me as an insider I can honestly say I have worked a lot worse places.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I have worked at Walmart for a year and know that since I have been there that breaks are insisted upon and that working off the clock is the biggest cardinal sin in the firm - after a certain amount of time as a cashier you are locked out of the register if you dont take a break and if you aren't clocked in you can't log on.

One thing that has astounded me and might surprise some who forever rant about their appalling wages constantly - every year employees get an evaluation and a merit raise. If you work there for years this actually amounts to a tidy sum such that you can have a cashier earning $20 plus an hour (this practice is now goingto be phased out due to the fact that a long term cashier can effectively earn more than managers.

I have never ever worked anywhere where two people doing the same job can be earning big buck differences. So yes as with any employer there may be problems but believe me as an insider I can honestly say I have worked a lot worse places.

I spent a lot of years working retail - most of it in grocery. When I had a union behind me, the breaks and lunches were on a daily schedule, even though the shift managers seemed to grudgingly follow it. With the nonunion jobs, many of them made you feel like a pansy if you took a silly 10 minute break - you were 'taking it for the team' when you forfeited your breaks. Same with working off the clock. If you were scheduled for 8 hours and were closing at night - if you didn't have all your work done, you were discouraged from clocking overtime, which often meant punching out but continuing to work. Also, with the nonunion jobs, the raises were based on merit, so it was part of your performance if you busted your ####### by forfeiting breaks and working off the clock.

I don't think the companies that encourage that kind of behavior are deliberately trying to circumvent people's need to have breaks or having to work overtime, but the environment exists where profitability trumps over employee's rights - they are always finding ways to keep labor costs down. Even with my union jobs, when we had a really slow day (not many customers), the shift managers would ask people if they want to go home early. With the nonunion jobs, they simply would tell us to go home.

Edited October 14, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[camaleon 0]

“Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'”

~ Charlie Brown

[zuni 0]

wal-mart suxs

[sercontigo 1]

But the deals are just so darn good...

[canadalaura 0]

breaks? lunch? what are these things, you say.... I work through mine all the time. Then again, I wouldn't if I was in retail.

[Widge 0]

A thought just occurred to me ........... I get every break and always finish on time but it isn't management who complains about these simple facts ......... its the customer who on seeing a cashier turning off her light bitches up a storm. Maybe we should stop complaining about Walmart manaagement and redirect the angst at Walmart customers

[Jasman0717 9]

But the deals are just so darn good...

Yea, no more price cutting???