Ex Wal-Mart workers allege labor violations in Vegas

David Strow

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

Already under attack in Clark County by union and county officials, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now faces a potential class action lawsuit that alleges the megaretailer is engaged in a systematic campaign to violate Nevada's wage and labor laws.

A lawsuit, filed Thursday in Clark County District Court by six former Las Vegas employees, claims Wal-Mart compels workers to work "off-the-clock" without compensation.

The suit seeks to represent all of Wal-Mart's employees in Nevada. The lawsuit requests compensatory damages for all former and current Wal-Mart employees in Nevada for at least the past four years.

"We believe they're doing this on a nationwide basis, and they have 900,000 employees," said attorney Justin Clouser, who represents the employees. "To think they're trying to make additional profits on the backs of their employees is really sad."

Wal-Mart declined to comment on the specific charges in the lawsuit, since the company has yet to be served.

"But the charges, as I understand them to be, are uncharacteristic of our business practices," said Wal-Mart spokesman John Bisio.

Although the lawsuit named only six plaintiffs, Clouser said his law firm has interviewed more than 80 Nevada Wal-Mart employees from Las Vegas, Reno and Carson City, who he said reported allegations like those raised in the Thursday lawsuit. The six plaintiffs worked at two Las Vegas Wal-Marts over various periods between 1996 and 1999.

The former employees allege that Wal-Mart has "created conditions that foster 'off-the-clock' work throughout its stores in Nevada." This is accomplished by giving employees jobs that couldn't be completed in a typical eight-hour shift, then coercing them into completing the jobs before they went home, according to the lawsuit. This allows the stores to understaff departments, saving money on labor costs, the lawsuit alleges.

No wages, whether overtime or regular, were ever paid for these hours, the employees claimed.

It is also standard practice to make employees work entire shifts without meal or rest breaks, the lawsuit claims. One plaintiff, a former customer service manager, claimed in the lawsuit that she was ordered by superiors to eliminate breaks for employees on her shift.

Wal-Mart allegedly encouraged these practices by giving a good portion of managers' annual pay through profit-sharing bonuses, the suit claims. In order to boost profits, the lawsuit states, Wal-Mart managers encourage off-the-clock work. The practice is encouraged by Wal-Mart executives up to the divisional level, the lawsuit claims.

"This is a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, this is how you make your bonus," Clouser said. "The corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., is the source of all of these policies and activities."

Wal-Mart's written policy specifically prohibits off-the-clock work, but the plaintiffs claim the company merely hides behind the policy and uses it against employees who complain about the practice.

Bisio responded that Wal-Mart is a company "that practices respect for the individual and the pursuit of excellence."

"Those core values guide us in how we conduct ourselves as an employer and a retailer," Bisio said.

No complaints were ever filed with the Nevada Labor Commission, Clouser said, because the magnitude of the practices "would overwhelm the Labor Commission."

Gail Maxwell, acting labor commissioner, said the lawsuit was "a more expedient method" for handling the suit. Her office has been taken to court several times by local companies seeking to overturn the Labor Commission's rulings through a judicial review.

"They probably would have ended up in the same place in two years," Maxwell said. "They just bypassed all of that and went for the guts. That's probably to their advantage."

Maxwell said there are no outstanding complaints against Wal-Mart pending with the Labor Commission.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for all current and former Wal-Mart employees in the state for the practice, plus interest. The employees also asked the court to levy fines against the company for violations of five Nevada labor statutes, including the Nevada Wage Claim Act.

Similar lawsuits have been filed in the past few months in state courts in Colorado and New Mexico, and Clouser said he's coordinating his efforts with attorneys in those states. At this point, however, there's no plan to consolidate the lawsuits.

"We would like to keep it in state court, because this involves violations of state laws," Clouser said.

Wal-Mart faced a hostile crowd of 200 union employees at a Wednesday evening meeting of the Clark County Commission, where the union blasted Wal-Mart's wage practices.

The commission was supposed to consider an ordinance that would ban so-called "big box" stores, shortly after Wal-Mart announced plans in July to build a combination grocery-retail store in northwest Clark County. The ordinance would require stores of more than 100,000 square feet, with at least 2,000 square feet of space for groceries, to segregate retail and grocery operations into two buildings at least 200 feet apart. Commission planners say the ordinance was drafted to prevent parking lot traffic jams, but insiders say it was drafted to prevent the expansion of the nonunion retailer.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has loudly criticized the proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter, fearing competition the store would create for unionized grocers.

The big box store proposal was removed from the commission's agenda Wednesday night for reworking by the commission's planning staff.

Wal-Mart currently operates seven stores in the Las Vegas Valley.