Jury awards $207 million to Wal-Mart workers denied lunch breaks

[Kadie]

Jury awards $207 million to Wal-Mart workers denied lunch breaks
By DAVID KRAVETS, AP Legal Affairs Writer

Thursday, December 22, 2005



(12-22) 14:27 PST Oakland, Calif. (AP) --


An Alameda County jury on Thursday awarded $207 million to thousands of employees at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. who claimed they were illegally denied lunch breaks.


The world's largest retailer was ordered to pay $57 million in general damages and $150 million in punitive damages to about 116,000 current and former California employees for violating a 2001 state law that requires employers to give 30-minute, unpaid lunch breaks to employees who work at least six hours.


The class-action lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court is one of about 40 nationwide alleging workplace violations by Wal-Mart, and the first to go to trial. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer, which earned $10 billion last year, settled a similar lawsuit in Colorado for $50 million.


In the California suit, Wal-Mart had claimed that workers did not demand penalty wages on a timely basis. Under the law, the company must pay workers a full hour's wages for every missed lunch.

more...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/22/state/n142745S06.DTL

[RagingInMiami]

1. I guess lunch was on them today

[DS1]

2. 1750 per person

Not a bad Christmas bonus after all

[Selatius]

3. Can we hit them with RICO laws as well?

Their anti-union activities are gangster-like.

[xchrom]

4. lol

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

now that just made my christmas a whole lot more merry.

[rurallib]

5. Wally will figure a way to get that money back out of each and

every one. Betchya a buck that every plaintiff will be in for extra scrutiny at work!

[Nicole]

6. Hats off to the jury

Congrats to the workers.

[AspenRose]

7. Yet ANOTHER reason to not shop at Wal-Mart

I had plenty of good reasons already..they just keep stacking up.

[Double T]

8. Remember the good old days when workers did not have to sue their......

employers for simple things like LUNCH. What the HELL ever happened to corporate america??? How did ALL bosses become complete and total idiots????