Wal-Mart Watch Statement on Lunch Break Lawsuit

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Washington, D.C., September 20, 2005 – Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director Andrew Grossman issues the following statement on the lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart of denying its employees meal breaks:

“Time theft” labor abuses are a chronic and systemic problem for Wal-Mart and the plaintiffs in this new suit represent a small fraction of the Wal-Mart employees who have been denied overtime pay and lunch breaks on the job. Wal-Mart’s managerial model pressures managers to lower store labor costs, resulting in under-staffed stores and “off the clock” labor for hourly employees – which is why they’re facing more than 40 similar suits for labor violations nationwide. At Wal-Mart, not only is there no such thing as a free lunch, allegedly, there's no lunch at all. Unless you're one of the corporate fat cats, who siphon off billions in taxpayer subsidies to make up the gap for their workers' inadequate wages and benefits.

Recent lawsuits involving “off the clock” labor violations at Wal-Mart:

•    2000: Wal-Mart reportedly had to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit that involved 69,000 workers in Colorado who had allegedly been forced to work off the clock [New York Times, "Lawsuits and Change at Wal-Mart," 11/19/04].

•    2000: An internal Wal-Mart audit found that of 128 stores, 127 of them were “not in compliance” with company policies providing for work breaks [Indiana Lawyer, “Class Certified in Wal-Mart Lawsuit,” 5/7/03].

•    2002: A federal grand jury in Oregon found Wal-Mart employees were forced to work off the clock and awarded back pay to 83 workers. [Associated Press, "Jury finds Wal-Mart owes 83 Oregon workers in unpaid overtime trial," 2/17/04].

•    2005: Wal-Mart paid $11 million to settle a federal investigation called "Operation Rollback," which found hundreds of illegal immigrants working off the clock cleaning stores [Washington Post, “Wal-Mart to Pay $11 Million; Chain Settles Illegal-Worker Investigation,” 3/19/05].