Oakland, California – A California jury on Thursday received $ 172 million to thousands of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. who claimed they were illegally denied lunch breaks. 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 law stated that employers are required to give 30-minute unpaid lunch breaks to employees who work at least six hours. The injury was originally reported as $ 207,000,000 after a court clerk misread the punitive damages of $ 150 million. The amount of punitive damages was later clarified. The class action lawsuit in the Superior Court of Alameda County is one of 40 national workplace violations by Wal-Mart, and the first to go to court. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer earned 10 billion dollars last year, settled a similar dispute in Colorado for $ 50 million.
California dress lunchtime, Wal-Mart claimed that workers did not ask for penalty wages on time. Under the law, the company has to pay full wages for hourly workers left for lunch. The company also said it would pay employees their penalty pay and in 2003, most workers agreed to waive their meal period influenced the law allows.
The demand for employees, past and present in California from 2001-2005. The workers claimed they were owed more than $ 66 million plus interest, and sought damages to punish the company for alleged wrongdoing. The lawsuit was filed by several employees of Wal-Mart high level in the Bay of San Francisco in 2001, but it took four years of legal wrangling to get to trial.