Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark Bernstein granted the class-action status to the wage-and-hour claims. The Pennsylvania suit could cover nearly 150,000 current and former employees.

The proof was in the retail giant’s computerized records that showed that breaks were skipped on a routine basis and there was no compensation when those breaks were missed. Instead of slashing prices, Wal-Mart has slashed workers’ wages, which are already almost a $1 an hour lower than the industry average.

However, under the store’s own policy, each employee is entitled to one paid 15-minute break during each three-hour shift. For each six-hour shift, an employee is entitled to two paid 15-minute breaks and an unpaid 30-minute meal break. Wal-Mart’s own records revealed that over 40 percent of their employees failed to receive the required breaks.

In fact, Wal-Mart’s practice of failing to properly compensate its workers is so wide-spread that a federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Orlando, Fla., will hear argument in late January 2006 to consider a motion to consolidate six such suits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. The cases being considered for inclusion in the multi-district litigation proceeding come from federal courts in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada and South Dakota. By consolidating the cases, all cases will be heard in one federal court by one judge.

The Pennsylvania class action suit is expected to be heard in September, but Wal-Mart workers aren’t sitting back waiting for the courts to give them justice.