Plaintiffs v Walmart
Minnesota Judge Approves Wal-Mart Wages Settlement
A Minnesota judge has given final approval to a settlement of a class-action wages-and-hours lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that could be worth up to $54.25 million.
A joint news release from Wal-Mart and the plaintiffs attorneys says the settlement concludes seven years of litigation over Wal-Marts employment practices in Minnesota.
The class-action settlement comes as the United Food and Commercial Workers union is in the midst of waging a campaign in more than a dozen U.S. cities, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, to organize Wal-Mart workers.
Dakota County District Judge Robert King Jr. filed the final approval in Hastings. He ruled last summer that Wal-Mart violated state labor laws 2 million times by cutting worker break times and willfully not stopping managers from having employees work off the clock.
About 100,000 current and former hourly workers for Wal-Mart, Sams Club and their distribution centers in the state from Sept. 11, 1998, until Nov. 14, 2008, are eligible for a share of the settlement. The deadline to apply is June 30. Information on applying is available at http://www.mnwalmartsettlement.com or 1-888-697-8026.
The company required hourly employees to work off-the-clock during training and denied full rest or meal breaks in violation of state wage-and-hour laws, King ruled July 1 following a nonjury trial.
As part of the settlement, Wal-Mart agreed to maintain various electronic systems to ensure it complies with Minnesota wage laws. The exact amount of the settlement will depend on the number of claims that are submitted, Wal-Mart said.
Wal-Marts failure to compensate plaintiffs was willful, King wrote in his 151-page decision in July. Wal-Mart was on notice from numerous sources of the wage and hour violations at issue and failed to correct the problem.
