Illegal overtime at walmart

Overtime disputes:
Wal-Mart has had its fair share of overtime disputes and employee complaints for illegal overtime.

In 2007 Wal-Mart paid $33 million in back wages to thousands of employees after turning itself in to the Labor Department for paying too little in overtime in the previous 5 years.

In October of 2006 Wal-Mart workers in Pennsylvania won a $78.5 million judgment for being forced to work off the clock and through rest breaks.  Workers claim they were intimidated into working past store hours, and through lunch breaks by the threat of being denied promotions or pay raises.

In August of 2009, Maria Gamble, a former Wal-Mart employee filed a class-action suit against Wal-Mart on behalf of 20,000 current and former employees for forcing employees to work without pay, sometimes locking them in the store into the stores after their shifts were over.  Gamble claims that she was routinely locked in the stores at night and forced to count out registers and restock merchandise, despite being off the clock.  She also claims that Wal-Mart would require employees to work through their meals and rest breaks although Wal-Mart was not providing "spread of hours pay" which requires for an employee working more than 10 consecutive hours to be entitled to one additional hour of minimum wage pay.

In order to eliminate employee complaints, Wal-Mart needs to adhere to the overtime laws mentioned later in this report.

Valenti, Catherine "Employee Sues Wal-Mart for Overtime" ABC News  August 9, 2009 <http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=87844&page=1>

The Associated Press "Wal-Mart Settles Overtime Dispute" MSNBC.com.  Jan 25, 2007 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16809248/>