Labor & Employment Law

Braun v. Wal-Mart, Inc.: Wal-Mart Hammered For Meal and Rest Break Violations in Minnesota

Companies doing business in California frequently lament the “unique” burdens imposed by California wage and hour laws. But with all the attention on California wage and hour class action litigation, it is worthwhile to remember that many other states actually have similar laws.
No one knows this better than Wal-Mart, which has just been handed another costly meal period class action defeat under Minnesota law in the case of Braun v. Wal-Mart. The International Labor Communications Association blog has a good summary of what the case means for Wal-Mart:

Dakota County District Judge Robert King ordered the company to pay $6.5 million in back pay. In addition, Wal-Mart faces fines as high as $2 billion for the wage-and-hour violations.

King's ruling culminated a seven-year legal battle by four former Wal-Mart workers who filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 56,000 current and former employees who worked at Minnesota Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores between Sept. 11, 1998, and Jan. 31, 2004.

"I was treated like so many of my co-workers," said Nancy Braun of Rochester, Minn., one of the four plaintiffs. "There was just too much work to do and never enough time to do it. There just wasn't enough time in the day to take the breaks we were entitled to."

Judge King found that Wal-Mart repeatedly and willfully violated Minnesota labor laws or its contract with its employees on the issues of contractual rest breaks, statutory meal breaks, shaving time from paid rest breaks and failure to maintain accurate records.

In the decision, the judge found that Wal-Mart was aware that employees were not receiving breaks to which they were entitled. "In essence, they put their heads in the sand," King stated.

He found that Minnesota law requires every employer to provide its employees with a sufficient time to eat a meal. King stated, "No time to eat a meal is not a sufficient time to eat a meal." King found that Wal-Mart violated the meal break law 73,864 times.

Full post as published by California Labor & Employment Defense Blog on July 08, 2008 (boomark / email).