The Labor Department on Tuesday ordered Wal-Mart to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages to thousands of employees who were denied overtime charges, the latest in a string of embarrassments for the company over its business practices.
The department said its decision affects roughly 4,500 vision-center managers and asset-protection coordinators who worked at Wal-Mart between 2004 and 2007. Wal-Mart had considered those employees exempt from federal regulations requiring overtime pay but reclassified them in 2007. The government and the retailer have been negotiating the amount owed since then.
The US Department of Labor press release brings the smackdown.
Walmart will continue to exploit their workers until these cases are the norm and not the exception. Walmart is about profit, pure and simple, and if they have to trample some employee rights or break a few laws then they are going to do it and then pay the fine if they happen to get caught.