Wal-Mart Won't Face Class-Action Lawsuit (FL: Workers Working Without Pay)

[Khephra]

PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- An appeals court has refused to reinstate class-action status for a lawsuit that sought to represent 230,000 Wal-Mart employees across Florida over allegations the company forced many of them to work without pay during breaks and after hours.

But the ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee left the door open for another suit if the list of plaintiffs is narrowed.

Lawyers for several former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees last year asked Circuit Judge Glenn Hess in Panama City to approve the suit on behalf of all current and former hourly workers who had been employed on or after July 13, 1997.

The appeals ruled Tuesday that the class action should be denied because the employee group is too broad.

"It includes members who never worked off the clock and therefore have no interest in the lawsuit," wrote District Judge Ricky Polston.

http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-wal-mart-suit,0,3281898.story?coll=sns-ap-business-headlines

[BlueJazz]

1. Attention Wal-Mart Workers: You fuckers think you had it bad before?

You better call your family during your lunch break and tell them not to keep supper warm for you. You'll be working your sorry asses off until you drop. Now get back to fuckin' work...you pieces of human garbage.

[wickerwoman]

7. Meanwhile, Chinese Walmart workers are now allowed to unionize.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/25/business/walmart.html

Merry Christmas, Walmartians!

[VegasWolf]

8. Yes, but the US is no China economically! n/t

[ooglymoogly]

2. but they will face our growing boycott!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ima]

3. I doubt the new

overtime laws will help them any.

[AllyCat]

4. Just in case you needed another reason to boycott Wart-Mall

Check out their fabulously awful human rights record (among MANY other things) at Responsible Shopper:

http://www.responsibleshopper.org/basic.cfm?cusip=931142

[Conservativesux]

6. Thanks for the link !!! (NM)

[SemperEadem]

9. also check out

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/


watch the program on walmart

[AllyCat]

11. Thanks for the link.

I'll try to watch this tonight after I get something more done on this paper. Didn't know PBS had done anything on Wart-Mall. I thought that would be illegal under the new FCC gestapo.

[tsuki]

18. Thanks, I bookmarked the site.

Will print it out later. Oh Boy, have I got a bunch of people to show it to.

[Conservativesux]

5. Welcome to the wonderful world of Bush's Corporatocracy...

and BTW, F***k Walmart!!

Wake up people. The slave-owners never had it so good :(

[Occulus]

10. I went into one last night

Just to check the Wallyworld price on a PC game. Not that I would buy one at Mal Wart. I just wanted to see if the price really was "always low".

But there's a funny thing about software. Publishers set prices. Doom3 and Half-life 2 both were priced at street value everywhere when they were released. Half-Life 2, still being a new release, is still the same price as it is everywhere else.

I still felt dirty when I got home, and I didn't even buy anything....

[Corgigal]

12. My daughter was contact yesterday

via e-mail by an attorney who is working on the women vs Walmart.
So that case is still going forward.

[struggle4progress]

13. In the Ownership Society, courts are for the rich. eom

[Rose Siding]

14. Why would the class action lawyers have included people w/o "interest"?

"It includes members who never worked off the clock and therefore have no interest in the lawsuit,"

Why'd they do that?

[Ima]

15. That doesn't make sense.

[TahitiNut]

16. Because of the cost to both identify and *prove* each member ...

... of the class was, in fact, coerced to work off the clock.

The major reason for a class action lawsuit is the ratio of the cost of litigation to the alleged individual damages. No minimum wage employee could gain the attention of a lawyer to sue for a single instance ... and they'd soon have no job.

In order to form the class in this case, the attorneys are going to have to use a level of 'proof' for each member of the class that's somewhat less rigorous than would be required in a single plaintiff lawsuit. Wal*Mart, in the other hand, will be doing their best to raise the bar.

There are times that membership in a class is accepted when there are no direct, documentable damages. Deceptive advertising is one such instance. It's not regarded as reasonable to require that each customer prove they made a purchase that they otherwise wouldn't because they relied on deceptive claims. At the same time, it becomes difficult later in the suit to actually assess compensatory damages or arrive at a fair settlement.

[Rose Siding]

17. Well

OK. My goodness. Thank you.

[Robert Oak]

19. If America boycott Walmart, the elephant would go down

132M Americans buy at least 1 item once a week at Wal-mart.

If a boycott could be organized Walmart would go down because this
elephant cannot afford to hold out against a boycott very long.

Not with that many Americans shopping there.