Wal-Mart ordered to pay $36.4 million in fees in off the clock case

Posted Nov 15th 2007 10:36AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Law, Wal-Mart (WMT), Employees, Scandals

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has been ordered to pay $36.4 million in fees and legal expenses to attorneys representing Pennsylvania employees who worked off the clock at the world's largest retailer. The suit involved 187,000 workers, and the total value of the judgment is now up to $187.6 million.

My favorite part: According to The Wall Street Journal, "A Philadelphia jury last year rejected Wal-Mart's claim that some people chose to work through breaks or that a few minutes of extra work was insignificant."

Can't imagine why they rejected that one. If true, though, it would have made a great recruiting slogan for the company: "Wal-Mart: The job that's so much fun you'll want to skip your break and work off the clock!"

Fighting the suit in the courts has just prolonged the bad publicity for the company.

Tags: employees, inthenews, Wal-Mart, WMT

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-25-2007 @ 8:13AM

NoneYa said...

I work at wal-crap and I dont do any 'wal-mart business' off the clock. I don't even clock out if I have to stay past my shift to pick up my check since the retards decided to hold on to them until 7a.m. when my shift ends. If it takes 20 mins. to get through the line then that's 20 more mins. I get paid for. It's not like they're trying to do us any favors. We've been promised help for almost 6 months now and I haven't seen a soul, not to mention the fact that we had to cut an hour becuause of the time change, like daylight savings time is our fault.

11-15-2007 @ 12:18PM

roudy11z said...

POINTS to PONDER:
A WMT employee told me that she had herself worked off the clock several times of her own choosing and without any pressure. Of course she said she would not dare do it now. I also think that part of this settllement should be paid by Rob Walton and Lee(Wennie Fuzz) Scott out of their own pocket along with the managers that might have known this was going on.

11-15-2007 @ 11:25PM

Brockage said...

Sometimes a person does work off the clock, starting a little early or staying a little late, but it always has to be voluntary, and if so, then it's ok -- it all depends on how you see yourself as an associate or an hourly laborer, kind of like "professional" vs "union."