BOSTON — Wal-Mart must face a class-action lawsuit by Massachusetts workers claiming the company forced them to work through breaks, the state’s highest court ruled.
The decision Tuesday reversed a lower-court ruling that denied hourly workers the right to sue as a group. The trial judge “abused his discretion” by denying class status and excluding testimony from the workers’ expert witness, the Massachusetts Supreme Court said. The court ordered the trial judge to certify the class.
The original denial “had effectively shut down access to the courtroom,” workers’ attorney Robert Bonsignore said in a phone interview. “Now they don’t have to put on individually cases that would cost $2 million per trial.”
Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., faces more than 70 U.S. wage-and-hour suits, including class actions by employees claiming the company failed to pay for all hours worked or didn’t compensate them properly for overtime.
The retailer lost a $78 million jury verdict in Pennsylvania in 2006 over rest breaks and unpaid work and a $172 million verdict in California in 2005 over meal breaks. Both verdicts have been appealed.
A Minnesota judge found in July that the company broke wage-and-hour laws more than 2 million times and ordered Wal-Mart to give employees $6.5 million in back pay. A second phase in that case, in which a jury will be asked to order Wal-Mart to pay as much as $2 billion, is set for trial next month.
