Jury says Wal-Mart must pay $78 mln in damages

[Steve Savicki]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061013/bs_nm/retail_walmart_damages_dc

A Pennsylvania jury said on Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news), 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, the world's largest retailer, saying the company violated Pennsylvania labor laws by failing to pay employees for the work.

The jury found in Wal-Mart's favor on the charge that it denied workers meal breaks.

In December a California jury ruled that Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, should pay $172 million in damages and compensation to about 116,000 current and former employees for denying meal breaks.

Plaintiffs in the 2001 California lawsuit claimed that Wal-Mart had failed to pay hourly employees for missed or interrupted meal breaks. Wal-Mart has said it took steps to ensure meal breaks for its employees, including deploying technology to shut down cash registers if cashiers do not respond to alerts for breaks.

Wal-Mart shares were up two cents at $48.30 on the
New York Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon.

<center>'bout time. Not even lawyers got Wally World out of this.
This will hurt their reputation though I don't know how bad.</center>

[BITEYOASS]

I can only pray they go out of business in 10 years and the entire executive board goes to a Federal pen.

[Steve Savicki]

What about Wally's children? Should they get maximum security?

[Revan]

http://steve-savicki.livejournal.com/

[Ellyllions]

Did anyone see the 2 hour special on MSNBC the other night? I don't remember the exact name of the show, but it was centered on Wal-Mart and it's successes as well as it's scandals.

I see the good and the bad in this company after seeing that show.

Sam had a good idea, with good intentions. Nothing wrong with wanting to build a big business that has the consumer in mind. But from my POV, when Sam died, greed took his idea and turned it into a racket.

I've never worked at Wal-mart but I would if I needed to. But in my other employments I've missed several meal breaks. Been forced to miss them. I worked for a large corporation for 3 years where it wasn't "convienent" for everyone else in the office for me to take a 30 minute lunch break. I've worked 16 hour shifts with only 1 or 2 10 minute breathers...on certain nights, I wasn't even allowed to leave my console for a bathroom break. Try that with a female!

My point is that, I know first hand what it's like to live in America and be treated like slave labor. You work for years with no benefits, no sick days, no vacation pay, and strict "if you're absent, you're replaced" policies. The reason Wal-mart is so hated and discriminated against is because there is potential money in suing them. It comes with the territory.

Just for fun...try this. Find a manufacturing company (i.e. furniture or textile mill) in your area. Go to the personnel office and ask for an application and a tour of the facility. If you get one, pay close attention to how hard the folks are working and talk to your tour guide about policies and benefits.

You might get a huge surprise....my hubby did.

[Revan]

Breaking news!

http://steve-savicki.livejournal.com/

[Jimmy Jingles]

Originally posted by Revan
Breaking news!

http://steve-savicki.livejournal.com/

ROTFL!!!!

[Nickdfresh]

I judge Wal-Mart by what they've done to American industry, as one of the biggest factors of the decline of what remained of American manufacturing...

BTW, they also have a long-standing habit of flouting federal OSHA standards (by locking workers inside overnight at some stores...

http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22829

[FORD]

This is why we NEED an estate tax in this country, so people like the Waltons, the Rockefellers, the Hiltons, and the BCE can fade the fuck out into history and this country can recover from all the damage that these worthless inherited wealth, never worked a fucking day in their lives, leeches have done to it.