Expert Witness Blog
Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court will hear an appeal of a massive class-action lawsuit that alleges Wal-Mart Stores Inc. deprived hourly employees of their earned wages and rest and meal breaks. Wal-Mart employees’ attorney, Robert Bonsignore, has 35 cases pending against Wal-Mart in other states. Wal-Mart employees have already won a $167 million judgment in California and a $151 million judgment in Pennsylvania. Donna Goodison of
Boston Herald.com also writes:
Using Wal-Mart’s paper and electronic payroll records, Bonsignore’s class action expert witness found that the Wal-Mart employees allegedly were deprived of wages for 10.1 million missed rest breaks from 1995 to 2005. The expert witness also found 21,383 alleged incidents of one-minute clock-outs where employees went uncompensated and that Wal-Mart allegedly realized $423,010 in free labor from employees whose work was not recorded by the system.
Wal-Mart also allegedly inserted 13,572 unpaid meal periods into employees’ records from 2001 to 2005, court documents state. A separate, earlier Superior Court ruling prevented employees from suing for missed meal breaks. “As a result of its willful misconduct, Wal-Mart’s ill-gotten gains exceeded $25,000,000,” court documents state.