A jury has awarded $172 million to 116,000 current and former employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the first of dozens of wage and hour class-action lawsuits targeting the giant retailer to go to trial. The world's largest retailer was ordered to pay $57 million in general damages and $115 million in punitive damages to employees for violating a 2001 state law that requires employers to provide 30-minute unpaid lunch breaks to employees who work at least six hours in a shift.
See "Wal-Mart Workers Win Suit", Molly Selvin and Abigail Goldman, Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2005