Wal-Mart Lawsuit May Grow

A federal judge has opened the door to a possible expansion of a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed by illegal immigrant janitors who claim the retail giant violated labor laws.

U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. in Newark, N.J., denied Wednesday a motion by Wal-Mart to dismiss the suit and instead approved the sending of court-approved notices to potential plaintiffs.

The court found merit in the claim that illegal immigrant workers have minimum-wage and overtime pay rights under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, said Gilberto Garcia, an Englewood Cliffs, N.J., lawyer who is part of a team representing more than 200 janitors who worked for contractors serving Wal-Mart.

The suit was filed by 17 janitors from Mexico and Eastern Europe. Many of them were among the 250 people arrested in an Oct. 23 federal raid on 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states.

Since the lawsuit was filed, lawyers have found more than 200 other former Wal-Mart contract janitors, many from Eastern Europe, who they say were also illegal immigrants.

An outside attorney for Wal-Mart said Friday that Greenaway’s decision was procedural. “None of this gets to the merits of the claim,” said David Murray.

The decision, Murray said, also cut back the size of the suit Garcia and the other lawyers wanted. The lawyers wanted Wal-Mart to furnish names of all contract janitors since 1996, but the judge limited potential plaintiffs to janitors who had worked since 2000.