On Wednesday, a California federal
jury found that Walmart intentionally failed to pay truck drivers for time
spent on work-related on-duty tasks, awarding class members more than $54
million in damages.
The issue involves “compensable time.”
Walmart took the position— a position we strongly counsel against in our
employment law course— that “compensable time” does not include pre-shift
safety inspections.
The Department of Labor regulations
are crystal clear: When work is “preliminary” or “postliminary” and is “integrally
related” to the “principal activity,” it counts toward time that the employer
owes.
Truck drivers don’t do safety inspections
because these activities are recreational, restful, or optional.
There is more.
Walmart also failed
to pay drivers for time spent washing
trucks, fueling, weighing the trucks’ load, waiting at vendor and store
locations, performing adjustments, complying with U.S. Department of
Transportation inspections, and meeting with driver coordinators.
In a separate wage lawsuit, a
different judge certified a class of 50,000 Walmart employees who allege they
were required to work through lunch and rest periods—they had their pay deducted,
did not get lunch or rest, and did not get paid.
Always the low price might be due to systemic wage theft.
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