The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently upheld a 2007 lower court decision against Wal-Mart in a class action case involving non-payment for missed meal and rest breaks. Workers also claimed that the company failed to pay them for all hours worked. The ruling affects about 187,000 employees working in Pennsylvania between 1998 and 2006. A class action is a lawsuit typically brought by a group or groups of similarly situated individuals.
Employers are generally responsible to pay hourly employees for all time spent under the employer’s direction and control. If employees are not paid for all of their hours worked, they are said to be working off-the-clock.
In California employers also have a responsibility to provide meal and rest breaks to hourly employees and the Labor Code provides strong worker protections for breaks, including premium pay for missed meal and rest breaks.
Read more about the Wal-Mart class action case at: https://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/16/us-walmart-lawsuit-idUSKBN0JU1XJ20141216
