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Wal-Mart settles dozens of worker class-action lawsuits

December 29, 2008

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Tuesday that it would pay as much as $640 million to settle dozens of wage-and-hour class-action lawsuits across the nation that accused the world’s largest retailer of cheating hourly workers and forcing them to work through breaks and off the clock.

Wal-Mart has faced numerous accusations in recent years that it has engaged in illegal wage practices such as shortchanging workers on overtime pay and not allowing them to take lunch breaks.”Many of these lawsuits were filed years ago, and the allegations are not representative of the company we are today,” Tom Mars, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president, said in a statement.

The cases being settled, 63 in all, involve thousands of current and former Wal-Mart employees and were brought by various groups of lawyers. A similar case in California, in which Wal-Mart was ordered to pay $172 million, was not included in the settlements and is under appeal.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs could not be reached Tuesday, but some released statements saying they believed the settlements set a standard for other companies.

 

Read Article: Los Angeles Times

 

$1.5 million settlement in ’06 crash that killed 5

Lawsuits in the deaths of five people involved in a three-car collision on the Big Island are being settled for more than $1.5 million. The crash occurred when the driver of a sport-utility vehicle hit two other cars on Nov. 10, 2006.

 

The lawsuits said the driver, Samuel H. Furtado, was going faster than 100 mph and that he was drunk. Court records show Furtado had two prior convictions for drunken driving.

The settlements will be paid by Furtado’s estate, his insurance company and Kiawe Kitchen, through its insurer. The insurance companies are State Farm and First Insurance, respectively.

 

The suits claimed Kiawe Kitchen continued to serve Furtado alcohol after he was intoxicated.

 

Read Article: Honolulu Advertiser

 

Worker Lawsuit Over Ford Stock to Go Forward

A judge has ordered Ford Motor Co. to start discussing settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of employees who had company stock as a retirement investment. In a key ruling last week, U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy allowed the 2006 lawsuit to go forward over Ford’s objections. Current and former nonunion workers say it was a mistake for Ford to offer company stock as an investment for retirement. From April 2000 to April 2006, the stock fell approximately 70 percent and now trades under $2.20.

 

“A stock can be imprudently risky for an employee savings plan even in the absence of fraud or imminent collapse,” Murphy said.The lawsuit was filed under ERISA, a broad federal law that sets rules for pension and 401(k) plans and allows participants to sue over mismanagement.

 

The lawsuit says Ford’s stock was an investment option, and a company match, during a volatile period for the automaker: the messy spinoff of parts-maker Visteon, rising pension and health care costs and a drop in market share. “They had an obligation to protect the plan and its participants from unreasonable and entirely predictable losses,” the lawsuit says.

 

Read Article: Law.com

 

Western State Hospital patients waiting to get out

Six years ago, 18-year-old Johanna Pratt was admitted to Western State Hospital, acting aggressively and hearing voices. Her combination of diagnoses made her a tough case to treat.

 

But by early 2007, hospital officials had deemed her “ready to discharge.” To keep her any longer, doctors said, could exacerbate her mental illness and harm her physical health. In fact, there were signs she was getting worse because she was in the hospital. She had begun mimicking the troubled patients around her, who do things like swallow batteries.

 

Yet she’s still there today.”All the time she tells me that she wants to get out,” said her father, Robert Pratt, of Washougal, Clark County. “I’ve screamed at those people up there. I’ve called senators. I’ve done everything I can do.”

 

Read Article: Seattle Times

 

Layoffs spark rise in wrongful termination lawsuits

Lured away from her job in Houston to take an executive position at Dell Inc., Jan Chapman persuaded her husband to quit his job, move with her to Austin, Texas, and buy a house at the height of the real estate bubble.

Seven months later, the computer maker laid off Chapman, whose 25-year career in human resources had been filled with flattering performance evaluations. Chapman, 59, and three other top female managers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Dell, alleging age and sex discrimination in the company’s termination of 8,000 employees over the last year.

The suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, is one of only a few so far emanating from the mass layoffs sweeping the country. But labor and employment lawyers warn that a tidal wave of wrongful-termination suits is expected in the coming months as the jobless burn through their savings, run up debt and find few work prospects in the worst economic downturn in decades.

 

Read Article: Newsday

 

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