Wal-Mart: Rolling back prices ... and employee pay

Wal-Mart's in the news again as a model employer. A Pennsylvania jury assessed a $78.5 million damage award against the world's largest retailer for violating state wage laws. The court concluded that Wal-Mart had required employees to work off the clock and through breaks. Plaintiffs' lawyer Michael Donovan, who represented about 187,000 current and former employees in the class action, told reporters that the award could rise to $162 million including bad-faith damages and attorneys' fees. The AP story (via the San Francisco Chronicle) is here.

In his WSJ Law Blog, Peter Lattman has this quote from the company, showing how it wasn't really their fault:

"Many employees testified that they skipped, or cut short, their breaks by their own choice,'’ said a Wal-Mart spokesman in an e-mailed statement. “Wal-Mart strongly discourages this practice and should not be penalized when an employee chooses to do this on his or her own.'’

Poor Wal-Mart. Having its employees take advantage of it by "choosing" to work for free. No fair.

It's too easy to pile on Wal-Mart over treating its workers poorly. What's more interesting to me as a management lawyer is the plaintiffs' attorneys' using electronic evidence to help prove their case. Apparently, the jury saw evidence that showed employees logged on to their registers when they were not on the clock.

Payment-of-wage cases are very hard for employers to win. You either paid the workers or you didn't. It's stupid to try to get away with not paying employees. It's even stupider to think that plaintiffs' lawyers aren't going to find out.