California Wal-Mart Workers who were Underpaid Overtime get their Money

It has been a while since I heard some good news about this giant, Wal-mart.

They should be commended for being honest in recognizing they made a mistake and for promptly correcting it.

If other large US corporations would emulate them, USA would become a Paradise overnight.

Maychic.com

My God! Wal-Mart really cheated these employees!!! Finally, each employee will get their check for less than $80 each! Yes, Wal-Mart hurt their employees in the pocketbook!

Average wages of $10 per hour and back wages being paid with 2 years interest.......overtime at $15 per hour plus interest means that each employee was shorted 4 to 5 hours total overtime. Assuming each employee worked enough hours to qualify for overtime once and 25 hours per week for 3 months, this means that employees worked about 320 hours and were shorted 4 hours.

$80 back wages, including interest? How were these people harmed? Shorted maybe, and Wal-Mart did VOLUNTARILY correct the issue, but please! $80 per employee!

This is almost comical.

While happy to see the associates get their due, I am
stunned to see that Wal-Mart would voluntarily, on it’s
own, agree to pay the workers.

I wonder what brought this on. It could not be the
goodness of Bentonville’s corporate heart.

My God! Wal-Mart really cheated these employees!!! Finally, each employee will get their check for less than $80 each! Yes, Wal-Mart hurt their employees in the pocketbook!

Average wages of $10 per hour and back wages being paid with 2 years interest.......overtime at $15 per hour plus interest means that each employee was shorted 4 to 5 hours total overtime. Assuming each employee worked enough hours to qualify for overtime once and 25 hours per week for 3 months, this means that employees worked about 320 hours and were shorted 4 hours.

$80 back wages, including interest? How were these people harmed? Shorted maybe, and Wal-Mart did VOLUNTARILY correct the issue, but please! $80 per employee!

This is almost comical.

Nick in

It’s not funny to those who need the money.
Eight dollars is nothing I’m sure to your pigs at the trough executives but the rank and file my feal different.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
C A L I F O R N I A
W O R K E R S
You can’t bad-mouth Wal-Mart, now, Alex!

Just think if Bentonville cheated all 1.6 million employees out of $80 dollars each! That would really be comical (and $128 million!)

Maybe that would help the stock price.

If other large US corporations would emulate them, USA would become a Paradise overnight.

That’s not “almost comical”. That’s absurd.

Ken V,

Where do you see the words CHEATED, in the story above?  The story clearly says, “errors in its payroll processes had led to underpayment of overtime and other wages.”, I think this had to do with paychecks being issued every two weeks!!

But, like I have said before, you guys take an ‘error’ and make into ‘cheating employees’, so that you can put your spin on the story!!  Don’t forget, Wal-Mart voluntarily reported this ‘error’!!

Who was it that said on the Radio now the rest of the Story?

This was Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay more than $3.9 million to about 50,000 current and former employees in California who were underpaid overtime and other wages, the state’s labor commissioner said on Tuesday.

This has been going on the last few years,after they were caught in California, then they voluntarily contacted each State that they made a mistake ,so no penalty from the other States.

Can you imagine the cost if the other 49 States penalized them?

Honestly I seen a check for 48 cents ,it was unpaid overtime
no interest.

No I remember I am not pro or anit Wal-Mart just giving you the facts. You can find it one the Web.

http://walmart-blows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6817&highlight=checks

Where do you see the words CHEATED, in the story above?

Nick introduced the word.

Wal-Mart really cheated these employees!!!

What would you call it?

No one here really knows what happened or why. Cheating implies that it was intentional. Sometimes a mistake is just, well, a mistake. Speculation is far more fun though…

Rob,
your comment is just dumb - who cares why they did it - what matters is that they did it - do you judge people/companies based on their intentions or their actions???

Systemic and repeated chiseling, cheating, defrauding in a multitude of ways. Not one basic common error, but many that reflect an attitude of theft from labor and a complete disregard for a just business practice across the country and around the world. The evidences of hostility against workers are not just overwhelming but a repeated practice and attitude. We do know what happened many times over in all the other court cases where state attorney generals and private class action efforts have been successful in getting back that which was stolen from labor. By the time all this is finished it will probably amount into the billions just for the unpaid overtime, unpaid lunch and break time, unpaid finish your shift regular time, time card chiseling of actual work hours and any other manipulations that this WalMart business attitude and philosophy can think of and get away with until they get caught. Similar to the COLI scams (Company Owned Life Insurance) and the ‘dead peasant’ treatment and attitude that WalMart had systemically even if it required breaking the law. They went ahead and did it anyway. This stems again from a ‘love of money’ psychopath attitude and business model that is premised on hostility to labor/workers/people. All the other evidences of different types showing corporate psychopathy are not collectively found in any other retail business model.

Perhaps it says something that this took half a year to resolve. Yes the news is that old; It stems back to this.

Bravo to Wal-Mart for doing the right thing. Take that how you will.

Nick-

If I’m reading you correctly, it almost sounds that you don’t think Wal-Mart is obligated to give its employees their due as dictated by the law and the terms of employment.

I hate walmart.  I just got home from walmart, finding out that half the items I bought weren’t in the bag.  The cashier (who ignored me) had put my things in the bag on the spinning wheel.  She DID NOT inform me that there was two bags, like at most stores where they do.  I now have to go re-buy half the things I bought at a different store-thanks to WalMart.  I think they’re sales associates suck.  They need to be more customer-oriented and trained better.  I’d never work for this company ever!!!!  Thanks walmart, I have to spend more money because of you-but I WONT be spending it at your stores.  An ex-Walmart Customer.

Mad Walmart Customer in Rochester, Minnesota(Walmart-North off of Hwy 52)-

Why don’t you try calling the store and telling them what happened? They will take care of you.

Someone in USA,

Could it be because…

a.  “Mad” was either too misinformed or just lazy and played-off the first couple of results of his Google search (which I have noticed, more often than not, is this website)?  I agree with you—if you get on the short end of the stick at any big store, just go to management—they have the power to make things right.

b.  Or maybe he is one of the many doppelgangers of Sybill in San Diego?

Bill

Billin? But no Bobbin?

Where is Bobbin?

Came back because of the NYT piece on Wikiscanner?

Are you there, BOM? It’s me, South Side.

Here’s a few other places you might like to tell your tale, Mad Walmart Customer:

PlanetFeedback
My3Cents

Complaints.com

ConsumerAffairs.com

Ken V,

“Here’s a few other places you might like to tell your tale, Mad Walmart Customer”

Yeah, and that will get Mad as much results as they got posting here, NONE!!  I agree with Someone, call the store and you will get a better chance of getting this resolved, than posting at a bunch of complaint websites!!

Yeah, and that will get Mad as much results as they got posting here...

The White House Office of Consumer Affairs says for every customer that bothers to complain there are 26 others who remain silent.

Some 91% of unhappy customers will never buy from you again and 85% of lost customers are lost because they feel, “They just don’t care about me or my business.” ~ JoAnna Brandi, “The Customer Care Lady”

Ken-

Merchandise left at the register is a common occurrence. The store should have a system set up to deal with it. S/He could probably just go to the store and get it taken care of. I only recommend calling to expedite the process.

You bring up a good point about the power of word of mouth. However, that last quote probably doesn’t apply to Wal-Mart.

Ken V,

“The White House Office of Consumer Affairs says for every customer that bothers to complain there are 26 others who remain silent.”

And, of those 26 customers who remain silent, who’s fault is it that they don’t get satisfaction?  When I shop, I watch to make sure I: First, get everything I purchased and, Second, that all the prices were correct!!  It’s that old ‘personal Responsibility’ again!!  If people would just follow up on problems, maybe they wouldn’t have so much to complain about!!

The store should have a system set up to deal with it.

Sure, they should, and if Mad Walmart Customer pursues it long enough he/she may get the problem resolved.

Fortunately, this is not an either/or situtation. MWC can try to get satisfaction through in-store channels while telling as many people as possible about the process.

It’s that old ‘personal Responsibility’ again!!

Cavet emptor*, eh, RDS?

*"Latin for “Let the buyer beware.” It means that a customer should be cautious and alert to the possibility of being cheated.” ~ The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition.

A more literal translation is: Screw ‘em if you can!

P.S. There should be an ‘a’ in there...caveat

Ken V,

“alert to the possibility of being cheated”

First, don’t you believe that PEOPLE can make mistakes?  Is it always that people are trying to CHEAT someone else?  What is the cashiers motivation for trying to ‘cheat’ you, if they forget to give you all the merchandise you purchased?  Do they get to keep all the merchandise they ‘cheat’ people out of?  Customer vigilance will help to keep mistakes to a minimum, but, then again, what would a person have to complain about, if they never get ‘cheated’?

Is it always that people are trying to CHEAT someone else?

Actually, I had to scroll down to the third or fourth Dictionary.comsource before I found one that contained the word ‘cheat’.

Just pushing your buttons, RDS.

Have you noticed the use of the word ‘error’ in a lot of Wal-Mart stories these days?

Ken V,

“Have you noticed the use of the word ‘error’ in a lot of Wal-Mart stories these days?”

Tell me something, would you NOT expect that a company the size of Wal-Mart, to have more ‘errors’ than a smaller company?  With thousands of stores and over 1 million employees, it only stands to reason, that they might have more than their share of ‘errors’!!

...more than their share...

My point exactly!  It’s up to management to see that a company only gets it’s share of errors, maybe even less...not more.

The slam against Wal-Mart is it’s currently being run by bean counters, not retailers, and they can’t even keep their numbers straight.

The payment errors affected all of Wal-Mart’s California workers from February 1, 2002 through January 19, 2007.

That’s a pretty big error.