November 3, 2009

Walmart to Finally Pay Some Workers

WASHINGTON, DC – Today Walmart announced it will pay $85 million dollars to hundreds of thousands of current and former Walmart workers for not compensating them for the work they performed. This lawsuit settlement is the latest in a string of multi-million dollar payouts by Walmart as it attempts to distance itself from a track record of poor employment practices and violations of workplace laws.

“It shouldn’t take the average worker years in court and expensive lawyers to get paid,” said Pat O’Neill, Executive Vice President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, “Walmart should be a good corporate citizen instead.”

Walmart has been involved in around 90 class action wage and hour lawsuits across the United States – including cases where the payout including penalties could have totaled as much as $2 billion.

“Walmart’s workers aren’t asking for a bailout – just to be paid for the work they’ve done,” said O’Neill, “and this case proves that Walmart can’t even do that.”