Employment Law News

Wal-Mart Workers to Receive More Than $33M In Back Wages

The U.S. Department of  Labor announced today that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay over $33 million in back wages to resolve issues that arose under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) concerning how the company computed overtime pay. The agreement covers 86,680 employees who worked for the company from Feb. 1, 2002 to Jan. 19, 2007.

"This settlement provides $33 million in back wages, plus interest, to Wal-Mart workers, and the company has taken corrective action to prevent this from happening again," said Assistant Secretary of  Labor for Employment Standards Victoria A. Lipnic.

To finalize the agreement, the Labor Department filed a complaint today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, Ft. Smith Division, against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. alleging violations of the FLSA overtime provisions. A consent judgment ordering the company to pay back wages and enjoining it from further violations was filed at the same time. The consent judgment was approved by the court this morning.

Wal-Mart brought this matter to the attention of the Department of Labor after an internal audit raised concerns regarding overtime computations. The issues involve how Wal-Mart treated incentives and other premium payments in the calculation of employees' overtime pay. The agreement also addresses payment of overtime to certain non-exempt salaried interns, manager trainees, and programmer trainees. Read more at dol.gov.

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	Did You Know?
	About Wrongful Termination employment Wrongful termination is a term that generally refers to a person being fired illegally. Many terminations that people think of as "wrongful" aren't illegal. In most states, employment is "at will". This means that the employer can fire the employee for no reason or any reason. However, there are two main reasons why a termination may be illegal- discrimination and contracts.