Four women from Minnesota who filed a class action suit against their employer Wal-Mart in 2001 have won the suit. The settlement of $54 million will cover approximately 100,000 current and former hourly Wal-Mart and Sam's club Minnesota workers.
The complaint alleged that employees were forced to work through their breaks without pay. Had the suit not been settled, it would have gone to Dakota County court which would have ruled on the amount of punitive damages Wal-Mart would have to pay. The amount could have reached up to $2 billion, resulting from an earlier ruling that found Wal-Mart guilty of breaking Minnesota labor laws more than 2 million times over 6 years by forcing employees to work through lunch and rest breaks routinely, without paying them for that time.
