Slavery To Continue At Walmart
June 28, 2011 by Robert Ringer
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1.5 million women at 3,400 Walmart stores in the United States had too little in common to allow a class-action lawsuit to move forward.
In a June 20 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court struck a note for liberty when it overruled Federal courts in San Francisco that had allowed all women who worked for Walmart since December 1998 to join in a single, nationwide suit seeking back pay. I say struck a note for liberty, because this was about far more than Walmart’s winning out over a bunch of high-priced litigators who represented a group of ungrateful Walmart employees.
More:http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/liberty/slavery-to-continue-at-walmart/?eiid=&rmid=2011_06_28_PLA_[P11884784]&rrid=387566735
When I say I'm not sure I agree, my reluctance arises in part from personal knowledge... of a young man I know who graduated from an outstanding liberal arts college last May and, failing to find a full-time job, worked for a year part-time at his local Wal-Mart. The store management made sure he never got enough hours to be considered full-time, thus qualifying for benefits such as health insurance. Should this young man feel grateful for his part-time job, Mr. Ringer? Or should he feel at least a little bit exploited?
A Google search tends to confirm my reservations about cheering for the retail giant:
Wage and Hour Lawsuits against Wal-Mart Settled for over $350 Million
Published: December 30th, 2008
Last week, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced that they have agreed to pay between $352 million and $640 million to settle 63 wage and hour lawsuits filed against the retailer in 42 different states. The lawsuits accused the company of cheating hourly workers by forcing them to work through breaks and not paying them for overtime....
Class action wage and hour lawsuits against Wal-Mart have generated a significant amount of media attention, as the retailer is the largest private employer in the world. The company has lost high profile lawsuits over wage violations in California in 2005 and Pennsylvania in 2006, which resulted in verdicts of $172 million and $78 million respectively for Walmart employees in each state.
More: http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/wage-and-hour-lawsuits-against-wal-mart-settled-2211/
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December 9, 2009 at 10:59 am by Michelle Leder
Wal-Mart settles wage and hour claims for $40 million…
Wal-MartFor the second time in the past week, a major corporation has settled a lawsuit for $40 million. As we footnoted last week, Dell (DELL) quietly disclosed in its Q that it had settled a shareholder lawsuit for $40 million. And then yesterday, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) disclosed in its 10-Q that on Oct. 19 it had settled a long-running wage and hour dispute in Massachusetts for $40 million. Needless to say, Wal-Mart never put out a press release on the settlement, though the Boston Globe reported on the settlement last week and called it the biggest wage-and-hour settlement in Massachusetts history.
More: http://www.footnoted.com/buried-treasure/wal-mart-settles-wage-and-hour-claims-for-40-million/
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May 12, 2010
Wal-Mart Settles Wage And Hour Lawsuit For Up To $86 Million, Reuters Reports
Reuters is reporting that Wal-Mart has agreed to pay up to $86 Million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of failing to pay vacation, overtime and other wages to thousands of former workers in California.
According to Reuters, “[a]bout 232,000 people will share in the settlement, which was disclosed on Tuesday in a federal court filing.
More: http://flsaovertimelaw.com/2010/05/12/wal-mart-settles-wage-and-hour-lawsuit-for-up-to-86-million-reuters-reports/
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As I have pointed out about the University of Phoenix in other posts on this Blog, sometimes repeated settlements of similar suits (in U of P's case, actions alleging violations of federal law concerning the university's admissions practices) suggest to me that the firm's bean counters have determined that such suits are just a cost of doing business... not unlike Ford's decision some decades back to sell cars with gas tanks that might explode, and defend the resulting lawsuits, rather than do a costly recall.
This latter case was dramatized in fictional form in a good film:
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When it gets to the point where a company is treating lawsuits --- is injuring customers or exploiting employees --- as a cost of doing business, that's when punitive damages and class actions ought to come into play... never mind what the tort reformers say.
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