In California, a jury in Alameda County Superior Court has found Wal-Mart guilty of denying lunch breaks to employees, and hit the retailer with fines that amounted to $115 million in punitive damages, and $57 million in general damages. After the lawyers are paid, those monies will be distributed among 116,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees.
Wal-Mart said it would appeal the verdict and fine, even though it conceded during trial that it had “compliance issues” with the California statute requiring lunch breaks.
Wal-Mart said it would appeal the verdict and fine, even though it conceded during trial that it had “compliance issues” with the California statute requiring lunch breaks.
- KC's View:
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Even if the lawyers didn’t get a penny and Wal-Mart didn’t win the appeal, that verdict breaks down to about $1,482 per employee…and if each of those employees wanted to have lunch next year for 250 working days, they’d have less than six bucks from the fine to do so.
Which means they’d be eating at McDonald’s. And probably the one in the front of the local Wal-Mart.
