Wal-Mart Agrees to $86 Million Settlement with Former Employees

Posted May 13th 2010 5:00PM by Brian White
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Employees

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) will be paying $86 million as the result of a class-action lawsuit in regards to back wages owed to California employees who left the company only to see built-up benefits apparently vaporize into thin air.

The amount is a small one for the retailing behemoth, and the retailer did not admit to not paying those back wages to some 232,000 former employees. The case, filed in 2006, claimed that back wages were either delayed beyond the amount allowed by state law or weren't provided at all to these former employees. The company had already settled another lawsuit in 2008 over similar issues for a total of $640 million.

So, what does this mean for Wal-Mart? For one, it now has a history of poor labor relations (that, or it simply has the largest target on its back) that will invite even more attempts to unionize employees across its U.S. locations.

This effort may show an uprising again after several failed attempts, and it could take attention away from the performance the retailer continues to have as more consumers look for pricing over flair and status due to the waning (but still impactful) recession. Continuing labor issues causing an overshadowing of good quarter after good quarter won't help laggard WMT shares do anything but continue rather boring performance.

Tags: inthenews, labor relations, unions, wal-mart, Wal-Mart Stores, Wal-Mart WMT, WMT

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-13-2010 @ 8:43PM

Kay Bullard said...

I worked for Walmart in Enid, Oklahoma, and as such I didn't appreciate the way I was treated or paid. I worked several times straight through for over 8 hours. YES, OVER 8 HOURS.

5-14-2010 @ 8:42AM

rbrtkyte said...

Anyone want to file another lawsuit with them for firing people indiscriminately?? I worked my tail off for this company and they told me I was not doing my job "well enough" and said I was rude to customers ,But when I asked for an example they could not provide me with any details! Also my Mother worked for them for 19 yrs and transferred to another store where I started work ,Well she ended up being hospitalized and I quit my job to care for her ,They said I could come back to work after 90 days ,It took them a year and a half to hire me back only to tell me I was fired for work performance ,I asked for another position but they would not give me one .Now I can't find work anywhere ,probably due to their explanation of why I was fired !