Jury Awards $172 Million to Thousands of Wal-Mart Employees

[Kristijntje]

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, was ordered to pay $57 million in general damages and $115 million in punitive damages to about 116,000 current and former California employees for violating a 2001 state law that requires employers to give 30-minute, unpaid lunch breaks to employees who work at least six hours. 

Several former Wal-Mart employees filed the lunch-break lawsuit in the San Francisco Bay area in 2001, but it took four years of legal wrangling to get to trial. The verdict comes as the company is waging an intense public-relations campaign to counter critics aiming to stop the retailer's expansion and make it boost workers' salaries and benefits.

...Paul Blank, campaign director for www.WakeUpWalMart.com, an union-affiliated advocacy group that believes Wal-Mart's policies over wages, health benefits and other issues harm families and communities, said he was delighted by the verdict.

...an internal memo surfaced that showed 46 percent of Wal-Mart employees' children were on Medicaid or uninsured.

full article: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/qKxz...yees.xhtml

[bargainbloodhound]

I'll agree to whatever Anita has to say about Wal-Mart.