Wal-Mart Ordered to Pay Millions to California Employees
By Daniel Hawn
Published on December 31, 2005
An Alameda County jury awarded $172 million to thousands of current and former Wal-Mart employees who were allegedly denied lunch breaks by the giant retailer.
The lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart by multiple former employees in 2001, however it was not brought to trial until 2004 due to legal actions on both sides.
Attorney Fred Furth represented the approximately 116,000 employees who worked for Wal-Mart between 2001 and 2005 and took part in the lawsuit. In court Furth argued that the workers were owed more than $66 million plus interest for the alleged missed lunches. Furth also sought punitive damages against the company.
Wal-Mart attorney Neal Manne argued that the employees did not promptly request penalty wages for the missed lunches. The law requires the company to pay employees an hour's wage for each lunch missed.
Manne also claimed that Wal-Mart did provide penalty pay to certain workers and that, in 2003, most workers had consented to forego their lunch breaks as permitted by law.
After the jury made its decision, Manne said Wal-Mart would likely file an appeal. He said that the law pertaining to lunch breaks could not be enforced by employees via a lawsuit but only by state regulators.
The jury's award consisted of $57 million in general damages and $115 million in punitive damages.
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