Do we need any more proof for Wal-Mart?
This post was published 3 years 1 month 5 days ago and its content may not be valid anymore.Is any more proof necessary to point out the questionable business practices of Wal-Mart? Check out this recent settlement regarding lost hours and break times:
A Pennsylvania jury said on Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, must pay $78.47 million in damages to current and former Pennsylvania employees for forcing them to work “off the clock” or during rest breaks. On Thursday, a state jury in Philadelphia found in favor of Michelle Braun and Dolores Hummel, formerly employed by Wal-Mart, saying the company violated Pennsylvania labor laws by failing to pay employees for their work. After deliberating for about two hours, the jury found in Wal-Mart’s favor on the charge it denied workers meal breaks. It awarded about $2.5 million for off-the-clock working and about $76 million for lost rest breaks between March of 1998 and May of 2006.
$76 million for lost rest breaks?! See what you could have prevented Wal-Mart had you handed out those petty little 15-minute breaks. Look who’s laughing all the way to the bank now!
So over the course of more than 8 years, lost rest breaks totaled $76M in PA alone. How in the world did they come up with that number? I would like to know exactly who it is that counted up the number of days/shifts (for months or years on end) that these workers were “deprived” of rest breaks
I’m not a Walmart hater–but I have a hard time walking into any store and seeing large numbers of employees that aren’t working. IMHO, it seems like they get to take breaks, they just do so without clocking out. Or going to a breakroom.