Wal-Mart Employees Are Restless

Wal-Mart may be fined by a Minnesota judge for violating the state’s employment laws. The fines are for ”contractual violations,” a fancy way of saying that Wal-Mart denied rest breaks to workers at least 1.5 million times.

For more information about Wal-Mart royally screwing its employees, check out Wal-Mart Watch.

The New York Times:

A state judge in Minnesota has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores violated state laws on rest breaks and other wage matters more than two million times and as a result could face more than $2 billion in fines. The judge has threatened to impose a $1,000 penalty for each violation.

The judge also ruled on Monday that Wal-Mart owed $6.5 million to 56,000 current and former employees because of contractual violations, including a failure to give workers promised rest breaks at least 1.5 million times. The judge also found that Wal-Mart managers in Minnesota had systematically broken the law by having employees take in-house training while off the clock.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said William R. Sieben, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit nearly seven years ago. “It’s only through a decision like this that Wal-Mart can be held to its contractual agreements and to complying with Minnesota law.”

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