This week, a jury in Pennsylvania awarded $78 million to plantiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart. The jury found, after deliberating for two hours, that Wal-Mart was at fault for making employees miss breaks, cut breaks short, and work without pay. Coverage via Bloomberg and The Writing on the Wal.
This is the second multi-million dollar settlement against Wal-Mart for unfair labor practices in the past year. Last December, a California jury awarded a $172 settlement against Wal-Mart, citing Wal-Mart with failure to provide meal breaks for 200,000 employees (see: Wal-Mart Struck with $172M Lunch Tab).
Wal-Mart, in their defense, has posted a statement on their website, Wal-Mart Facts, about the most recent case (see: Statement on Hummel case). They say that these cases, and others in various stages of litigiation across the country, revolve around allegations from several years ago. They’ve upgraded their systems and technology in-store to avoid having this happen again. That’s great, but that still doesn’t make things right for what may have happened within the past few years, prior to installing new systems.
The thing to consider is how a case like this can send echoes throughout the entire retail industry. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer, and one of the largest companies in the world. Any time Wal-Mart has a large lawsuit or verdict in the press, be it about keeping employees off the clock, locking in employees overnight, or discriminating against minorities, I’m sure most other retailers are checking and rechecking their policies to ensure they aren’t open to face similar litigation.
Every one of these lawsuits against Wal-Mart is a wake up call to the rest of retail.