Jury slaps Wal-Mart with $172M ruling

[BeatleBoot]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/22/news/fortune500/wal-mart_damages/index.htm?cnn=yes

Jury slaps Wal-Mart with $172M ruling

A California jury orders the retail giant to pay $172 million to workers denied lunch breaks.

December 22, 2005: 7:43 PM EST


(CNN) - Jurors in Oakland, Calif., Thursday awarded $172 million to thousands of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees after deciding that the world's largest retailer violated state law by denying lunch breaks, a court spokesman said.

Jurors in Alameda County Superior Court awarded $57 million in actual damages and $115 in punitive damages in the class action lawsuit filed in 2001.

Jessica Grant, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, spoke to Reuters after the ruling. "What was compelling for the jury was that we put a lot of evidence before them of memos by Wal-Mart from seven years ago that concluded they had been breaking the law," said Grant.

<more at link>

[SkiGuy]

1. Anyone up for lunch at Wal-Mart today?

[napi21]

2. I cheered yesterday when I heard this!

That's a VERY LARGE award, even for a co. the size of WM. I'm glad. They, like shrub, have been operating for many years with the attitude that they culd get away with anything!

After the announcement yesterday, they did say they didn't know if WM would appeal.

I'm sure they will, unless the internal WM memos were SO damaging, an appeal would be useless!

[mattclearing]

3. Pocket change.

Can anyone break a billion? :shrug:

[tsuki]

4. I read this and wondered...What kind of employer keeps

employees from eating lunch? I flashed on that old movie, Oliver Twist (I think). Begging for lunch.

[China_cat]

5. What kind of employer keeps people from eating lunch?

The kind that engendered the rise of unions better than 100 years ago. Read up some time on the conditions that finally brought workers to the breaking point...and don't be surprised when a lot of them look awfully familiar.

[mark11727]

6. A very long time ago...

... I had a job in a NYC graphics house, and everyone was REQUIRED to "punch out" for lunch --- now, lunch was SUPPOSED to be a hour, but in reality could be a little as five minutes (you could be pulled out of the lunch room at a moment's notice for a "rush" assignment), but the fact was you HAD to punch out.

Sometimes, I'd just eat at my desk (I nearly always brownbagged), and a couple of times forgot to punch out, and was roundly chastised for it.

After a while, and after a few too many "emergency rush" jobs, you learned to eat outside of the office, around the block, and appreciate pushcart cuisine.