
California law, like the laws in many other states, requires employees to give a minimum of 30 minutes unpaid lunch breaks to employees who work at least six hours. In 2000, several California workers claim Walmart illegally demanded these breaks be skipped (and of course, in the process, save money either by working employees through these unpaid breaks or by recognizing more benefit from their cheap labor pool.
Walmart says the employees voluntarily skipped their lunch breaks. A class action suit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court and the case went to trial. Who was right? On 12/22/05, the California jury awarded $207 million to 116,000 current and ex-employees at Wal-Mart stores. A similar lawsuit was settled during 2004 in Colorado for $50 million.
Wal-Mart currently has over forty lawsuits outstanding in the United States, alleging workplace violations by Walmart. The California lawsuit mentioned above, brought about over 4 years of wrangling by Walmart before the lawsuit made it to trial.
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In-Article Image Credits
Wal-Mart store exterior in Laredo, Texas via Wikimedia Commons by Jared C. Benedict with usage type - GNU Free. February 22, 2004Featured Image Credit
Wal-Mart store exterior in Laredo, Texas via Wikimedia Commons by Jared C. Benedict with usage type - GNU Free. February 22, 2004