Jury Finds Wal-Mart Violated Overtime Laws

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. managers in Oregon violated state and federal wage laws by forcing employees of the world’s largest retailer to work unpaid hours to avoid overtime, an Oregon jury concluded Thursday.

A federal court jury in Portland found that the company engaged in a pattern of prodding managers to hold down costs by using off-the-clock work to ensure tasks were completed. More than 400 Oregon Wal-Mart employees are seeking damages as part of the class-action lawsuit. Another jury will decide damages in a later phase of the case.

Wal-Mart’s pay practices have been criticized by unions and advocacy groups, who picketed stores in 100 cities across the U.S. last month, calling for improvements in wages, benefits and working conditions. The United Food and Commercial Workers union is seeking to organize Wal-Mart employees nationwide.

“The case is about managers learning how to put the pressure on people to work off the clock to get the job done,” James Piotrowski, a lawyer representing Wal-Mart workers, told the eight jurors in closing arguments last week.

Officials of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart denied that the chain’s policies sanctioned off-the-clock work and said Oregon employees were focusing on “isolated incidents.”

“We are disappointed in this verdict because we have a strong policy against off-the-clock work, and we discipline managers under that policy,” said Bill Wertz, a company spokesman.

A former Wal-Mart manager testified during the trial that she routinely docked overtime hours from workers’ paychecks at the direction of her supervisors and pushed employees to work more than 40 hours a week without additional pay to finish assigned tasks.

Carolyn Thiebes, the former manager, recalled that if her department missed performance goals, she’d be presented with a trophy, shaped in the form of a donkey’s hindquarters, to mark her failure.

That kind of pressure on managers, coupled with a crushing workload, was part of a planned effort by Wal-Mart to hold down labor costs, Thiebes said. When she complained to supervisors about it, she was ignored, she said.