by Art Gutman Ph.D., Professor, Florida Institute of Technology
Recently, we reported that Wal-Mart agreed to a settlement of up to $86 million dollars for up to 232,000 former employees related to allegations of nonpayment for vacation or personal leave in accordance with California state law after they were terminated. The California settlement occurred on May 11, 2010. On May 21, 2010, Wal-Mart agreed to another settlement, this time under Oregon state law. The Oregon agreement is up to 4.4 million dollars for as many as 28,000 former employees terminated between December 9, 2002 and March 26, 2010. This settlement is for the consolidated cases of Moore v. Wal-Mart (D. Or., 08-CV-48-MO) and Klink v. Wal-Mart (D. Or., 09-CV-3018-MO). The allegations in Oregon were similar to those in California, including non-payment for vacation time, overtime, and straight time, and failure to accurately record and report wages of terminated employees.
