Marion County Judge Gary Miller last Tuesday said 113,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees in Indiana can move forward with a class-action lawsuit that claims the $218 billion company neglected to pay them for working off-the-clock.\nWal-Mart spokeswoman Cynthia Illick denied the allegation and said, "It is our policy to pay our associates for the time they work," including any overtime.\nSo the two sides will go to court in order to sort out the disagreement, spending money on lawyers and the many other associated transaction costs inherent to litigation.\nWhat appears to be clear in all of this is that at the highest levels of the company, Wal-Mart encourages its associates to inform managers when they have performed extra work. It also urges managers to adjust employee time sheets, reflecting accurately all work associates have completed.\nWal-Mart has disciplined managers in the past -- firing them in some cases -- for failing to see that workers' time sheets are updated for off-the-clock work, Illick said.\nSo it appears unlikely that somebody at the corporate level is advocating that managers push associates to work during lunch and after work in order to increase company sales (although severe punishment is in order if this is the case). What seems more likely is that both store managers and some associates have been negligent.\nFor example, clocking out, helping a customer and then forgetting to tell a manager about the extra 30 minutes spent working is just one case in which an associate fails to receive overtime pay. In another example, an associate tells the manager about the extra 30 minutes he or she worked and the manager forgets to adjust the time sheet. And of course there is the event where a greedy manager encourages workers to put in extra time and does not pay them.\nBut none of this suggests that Wal-Mart is involved in some high-level, widespread effort to push associates to work off the clock and then not compensate them.\nStill, a company has a problem when hundreds of thousands of its one million employees complain about not receiving proper compensation.\nRegardless of what the courts say, Wal-Mart should do this:\nFirst, demand from employees and former employees documentation of the times and dates they worked and were not paid -- and then pay them. Failure to provide accurate and legitimate documentation of such times will result in zero compensation.\nSecond, investigate and find negligent managers and then discipline them. If they must be fired, so be it, but Wal-Mart associates must feel like their concerns are being heard.\nThird, make it very clear to associates how to fill out time cards and alert managers to discrepancies in hours worked.\nBeing proactive is in Wal-Mart's best interest, but not as some public relations stunt. Litigation is costly, employees appreciate it when employers listen and respond and people should get paid for the work they do.
-- Mike Eisenstadt for the Editorial Board
