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Judge orders Wal-Mart to pay $6.5 Million for labor violations Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 By Kimberly Morrison Stephens Media SPRINGDALE - A Minnesota judge has ordered Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to pay $6.5 million in back pay to workers who sued the world's largest retailer alleging state labor law violations. Dakota County Judge Robert King Jr. ruled in a class-action suit representing 56,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club employees that Wal-Mart forced workers to work off the clock and work through meal and rest breaks. "Wal-Mart's failure to compensate plaintiffs was willful," King wrote in his 151-page decision. "Wal-Mart was on notice from numerous sources of the wage and hour violations at issue and failed to correct the problem." A jury will decide how much the company will pay in violations and consider punitive damages in a second trial scheduled to begin Oct. 20. "In phase two, the jury can find a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation, and it is our allegation that there are millions of violations," said Justin Perl, a Minneapolis lawyer representing the plaintiffs. King decided the Bentonville-based retailer violated the state's labor and wage laws 2 million times, meaning a a jury could determine Wal-Mart owes as much as $2 billion. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore said the company respectfully disagreed with parts of the decision and is considering an appeal. Plaintiffs' attorneys argued that managers who operated understaffed stores and were under pressure to meet store performance goals denied breaks to keep down labor costs. They argued Wal-Mart managers falsified timecards, forced employees to work before clocking in and after clocking out, and did not pay staff for training. King said the evidence did not support allegations that records were falsified. The judge did find that Wal-Mart's own audits showed employees were missing meal and rest breaks, and that company managers were unresponsive. "They put their heads in the sand," King wrote. The lawsuit was first filed in 2000 and was awarded class-action status in 2003. The trial concluded April 1. Wal-Mart is appealing verdicts in similar cases in California and Pennsylvania and faces more than 70 class-action lawsuits claiming wage and hour violations. The retailer has consistently denied wrongdoing and continues to dispute the case's class class-action status. "Our policy is to pay every associate for every hour worked and to provide meal and rest periods, and any manager who violated policy is subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination," Moore said. "It is our position that this case does not warrant class-action status, and that the experiences of a handful of individuals is not representative of tens of thousands of others." |
