Jury backs Wal-Mart workers

An Alameda County jury Thursday ordered Wal-Mart to pay $172 million to more

than 100,000 California employees in a class-action lawsuit that claimed the

retailer routinely denied the workers meal breaks.
Attorneys representing the employees said it was the first major jury award against

Wal-Mart involving employee pay. At least 32 similar suits are pending against

Wal-Mart in other states.
Wal-Mart issued a statement saying it would appeal the verdict, which gave the

employees $57 million in compensatory damages for the unpaid meal-periods

and $115 million in punitive damages.
The company's statement acknowledged that Wal-Mart ``had compliance issues''

with California law when the suit was filed in 2001. The law required a 30-minute

meal break within the first five hours of a shift, or an extra hour's pay.
But while admitting to non-compliance in the past, Wal-Mart said there was no

basis for punitive damages and said the problem has been corrected: ``Wal-Mart

has since taken steps to ensure all associates receive their meal periods,

including adopting new technology that sends alerts to cashiers when it is time for

their meal breaks. The system will automatically shut down registers if the cashier

does not respond.''
Carolyn Beasley-Burton, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Furth Firm that

brought the suit, said she expects more such verdicts against Wal-Mart in other

states.