Work Boxers

Make Certain Your People Take Their Breaks!

by Mark on July 1st, 2008

And, if they punch a time clock, make sure they do that also…

From Steven Greenhouse at The NY Times;

Wal-Mart Faces Fine in Minnesota Suit

“A state judge in Minnesota has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores, the discount department store chain, violated state laws on rest breaks and other wage matters more than 2 million times and as a result could face more than $2 billion in fines. The judge has threatened to impose a $1,000 penalty for each violation.”

When I worked for Wally the point was made systematically and with certain definity - take your breaks and punch out and in. The only negative I could offer was the management’s anal vision of the few seconds or moments before or after the scheduled times to punch out or in, threatening write-ups or even termination for too many late or early punches.

“The judge also ruled on Monday that Wal-Mart owed $6.5 million to 56,000 current and former employees because of contractual violations, including a failure to give workers promised rest breaks at least 1.5 million times. The judge found that Wal-Mart managers in Minnesota had systematically broken the law by having employees take in-house training while off the clock.”

Never saw that happen but then again, I wasn’t spending all my time in the training room either.

The numbers in these suits across the country are a bit staggering in their enormity. Makes for an interesting read…

Related Stories

• Redesign Time
• Assumptions
• The Overlooked SEO Technique
• I Need More Ads
• The Easy Way To Content And Money - Part II

POSTED IN: Legal