Los Angeles Employment Lawyer

A judge’s ruling in a Minnesota employment lawsuit against Wal-Mart could mean large fines for the enormously successful retail chain.

The recent decision in a wage and hour lawsuit filed by four female employees in September 2001 holds that Wal-Mart owes some $6.5 million to 56,000 employees for violations which include failing to give workers their promised rest breaks and shorting workers out of their 15-minute breaks.

Judge Robert R. King, Jr. said that Wal-Mart had violated state law in failing to keep records of over 325,000 shifts, as well as failing to appropriately modify time records for employees who were undergoing in-store training.

King did rule in favor of Wal-Mart on several issues, including an allegation that Wal-Mart managers made employees work off the clock during normal hours.

If Wal-Mart is ordered to pay the maximum $1,000 fine per violation for some 2 million offenses in which it deducted workers’ pay for going over allotted break time and denied over 70,000 meal breaks, it faces a financial penalty of $2 billion.

Has your employer violated wage and hour laws in the way they calculate your wages or time on the job? If so, contact Los Angeles employment lawyer Perry Smith at 888-356-2529 today.