Posted by Elizabeth Wang.
Wal-Mart settled a class action lawsuit in California. Wal-Mart’s ex-employees filed lawsuit claiming wage law violations; they did not have the 30–minute lunch break, which is required for employees for working of at least six hours in the state. The plaintiffs collected $57M in compensatory damages and $115M in punitive damages, according to the Associated Press. A similar lawsuit against Walmart in Texas, Oregon, and Colorado yielded a $50M settlement.
In Pennsylvania, 150 workers had claimed that Wal-Mart was not paying for hours worked: “In one instance, one employee claimed 8 to 12 unpaid hours a month, on average.” Of course, Wal-Mart denied the allegations; their explanation is that they were testing a “flexible scheduling” policy, through the company called a shift rotation. Consequently, many full-time workers now are working in part-time schedules. This way, they claim that Wal-Mart is cutting its cost of salaries and do not have to pay employee benefits.
The lawyers of the Wal-Mart employees had to ask the court judge for an injunction from Wal-Mart to obey the legal lunch-break laws. Now, the company has to report this compliance for the next three years.
Wal-Mart has stores worldwide, mostly in United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil. Today the company’s worth is $33.1 billion (Walmart[1], Wikipedia, 2015). I was shocked to realize how many lawsuits were against this company. The salary of their employees are not sufficient, despite the company’s $285 billion in sales in 2015 in the U.S. Many of their full time employees had their working hours reduced to part time. I hope not only Wal-Mart but all business can be a little more generous with their fortune profits and learn from these lawsuits.
Elizabeth is an accounting major at the Feliciano School of Business, Montclair State University, Class of 2016.
Sources:
Walmart- Wikipedia
The Good, the Bad, and Wal-Mart[1]
Wal-Mart Class Action Lawsuit[2]
[1] (2006). The Good, the Bad, and Wal-Mart – Wal-Mart. Retrieved November 13, 2015, from http://www.workplacefairness.org/reports/good-bad-wal-mart/wal-mart.php.
[2] (2014). Wal-Mart Class Action Lawsuit | Wal-Mart Trucking Lawyers. Retrieved November 13, 2015, from http://www.wagnerjones.com/wal-mart-class-action-lawsuit/.
[1] “Walmart – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” 2011. 13 Nov. 2015