From the American Association for Justice news release today:
The New York Times (12/10, B7, Greenhouse) reports, “Wal-Mart Stores announced a $54.25 million settlement on Tuesday of a lawsuit accusing it of wage violations in Minnesota — far less than the $2 billion in fines that it was threatened with when a judge ruled against it last July.” The judge had “ruled that Wal-Mart had violated state laws on rest breaks and other wage matters more than two million times and could as a result face more than $2 billion in fines.” Altogether, the “settlement includes a substantial payment to the State of Minnesota” and “Wal-Mart agreed to maintain various electronic systems, surveys and notices that would help ensure compliance with state law and its own wage and hour policies.” The AP (12/9, Karnowski) and the Wall Street Journal, which ran a version of the AP story, Bloomberg News (12/9, Rovella), the Minneapolis Star Tribune (12/9, Alexander), CNN (12/9, Pepitone), and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal (12/9) also covered the settlement.
