Wal-Mart loses $187.6M worker break case

Stop violating the law and paying what the federal wage/hour laws require, and what you owe your employees, and there won't be any lawsuits... Easy.

Stop violating the law and paying what the federal wage/hour laws require, and what you owe your employees, and there won't be any lawsuits... Easy.

Wrong....

A company like Walmart is a magnet for frivolous law suits because they have money and lawyers know it. they seek out freak groups like this all the time and from time to time, they win the case. Sometimes a company is at fault but more than not they just found a jury that agrees with them.

Now in walmart's case- there are groups from the left that are trying to unionize, and leftist groups bitching and whining and filing law suits just for the heck of it.

My guess is that they just found a jury of walmart hating leftists here.

Without the minimum wage regulations- Walmart workers are grossly overpaid. In fact, today in this economy - MOST minimum wage workers are overpaid. This regulation is holding back millions of jobs from being created.

I won't name the company, but I had been working for it for about a year when I received a call, at home, from Colorado's Dept. of Labor. They asked a number of questions about what I did and my authority to make decisions.

A few months later we received a letter from CO's DOL saying that we would be receiving checks to cover 1/2 of the overtime we had worked, based on some formula.

We received a letter and a check from our company. I received $1800 and one guy who had worked there for a few years received $6K.

Apparently someone had filed a complaint with CO DOL to investigate the company's practices.

As I've said before, without regulations we'd be back to the 19th-early 20th century labor practices, where we worked 7 days a week for lousy pay and no benefits. Killed on the job? Tough, you should have been more careful. Who cares that you were put at risk because of the company's non-safety standards? You took the job. Of course, all the jobs were like that.

Remember the shirtwaist factory fire? While the workers had gotten the company to change some workplace standards, the one they really needed was the one they didn't get, and over a hundred women and children were burned to death as a result of that lack.

These regulations were put in place because companies had no regard for employees. To them they were just a means to an end, and the collateral damage didn't matter. It's still true today.

The Viking wrote:

Science Chic wrote: Are you for abuses in the workplace then Viking? Granted, it's not like working at the counter is hard manual labor, but if that's what they are legally owed, then WalMart broke the law. But maybe we should give look the other way, being as they are propping up our economy providing so many jobs...

Which abuses are you talking about? Giving them a job? Employing more people than Obama could ever do with trillions of our dollars? Paying them way more than minimum wage? Giving them good healthcare benefits? Which abuses?

hmm - how about some of the ones stated in the case - no legally mandated breaks, requiring work without pay, no overtime, refusal to allow any employee full time hours so they do not qualify for full time benefits, etc? When you do';t have full time hours, the healthcare Walmart provides is worse than paying out of pocket. Ask an employee.


Get rid of minimum wage? Ok. You do understand that will mean YOU are also out of work, because the service industry will jump at this and cut wages for every minimum wage employee. And most will keep their jobs because here's the facts - underpaid is better than unemployed for most people. That means insurance companies take a dive, because people will drop their insurance, cable, phones, etc - all but bare necessities once they can no longer afford it. I did insurance sales too, once, a long time ago. I know you get paid based on not only new policy sales, but also a percentage based on the continuing contracts. When those contracts go away - no pay.

What the market will bear? Did you ever study the conditions that created the Great Depression? Did you pay attention to what we are in right now? Only real saving grace is that we have not had a several year drought. If we do, even in the next few years, our grandparents lives will be repeated in ours.

The labor laws were put into effect to protect the people - you and me - not serve the corporations. Same with minimum wage. same with the FDIC. But if you're secure that your money is still going to exist when we take all these things away - why, go for it. It'll be an interesting experiment. But let me know so I can get the hand pump on my well and the greenhouse up and the chickens in first before you do this- cause I know for damn sure my jobs will disappear if the economy is allowed to fail so abruptly when you get rid of all these guarantees that were put in place so it wouldn't fail so badly ever again. At least I can live without electricity. Not many people can say that.

Science Chic wrote: Are you for abuses in the workplace then Viking? Granted, it's not like working at the counter is hard manual labor, but if that's what they are legally owed, then WalMart broke the law. But maybe we should give look the other way, being as they are propping up our economy providing so many jobs...

And so the question becomes are the laws that were passed to protect the workers doing hard manual labor the same ones that companies who employ counter workers should be subject to? Is "one size fits all" federal legislation one of the handcuffs that it has shackled the entire nation with? Is it perhaps one of the areas in which the federal government harms our productivity?

My job would not likely be affected by getting rid of a minimum wage. The reason is because I earn much more than the minimum wage- and in most of our economy wages are above the minimum wage.

My job is subject to supply and demand forces- the supply of skillset is limited - and the demand for my skills sets my value in the market. The worse the economy gets- the less I am worth in the workplace.

People like me are subsidizing low wage workers. Since many of those workers are worth less than what they make, we are all paying more for products and services at places like Walmart because those workers are overpaid. If it were not for the government propping up the value of those workers, the products and services would cost less.

In addition- many companies would be able to hire more workers. If the minimum wage (some $7.35/hr) or close to that were to go away- and a company could hire at 5 or 6 bucks, many more jobs would be generated by employers.

This would prove to be a boost for the economy- more economic activity is good for everyone, and it would start to spread and the affect would multiply.

Job conditions will get worse - unless we do start to take steps to reduce government regulations, the economy will get worse. The conditions you liberals are afraid of will transpire unless we turn things around now- this economy is not creating jobs, even minimum wage ones. If it keeps deteriorating, all of us who are still employed will be working for minimum wage- trying to subsidize the rest of us who are unemployed.

And as far as a company taking advantage of workers- we always have the option of quitting our job for a better one. No company is forcing anyone to stay- if a better opportunity exists- then go for it.

If a better job does not exist- you all are complaining about nothing!

Working for 8 hours but only getting paid for 6 is certainly a good way for corporations to keep their profits up...It also happens to be illegal.


What part of "illegal" are you having trouble with?

If you feel like you are "subsidizing low wage workers", don't shop at Wal-Mart.

I should point out that being at work for 8 hours and working for 8 hours are not in any way identical terms.

Since this was a class-action suit, perhaps you could point out--specifically--which ones of the members of the class did not work the requisite amount of time? There's only 187,000 current and former employees for you to hurl your baseless assumptions at... So, have at it...

If you feel like you are "subsidizing low wage workers", don't shop at Wal-Mart.

I should point out that being at work for 8 hours and working for 8 hours are not in any way identical terms.

You got that right PS- for example, I'm working right now!
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