Class action suit filed against Wal-Mart and one pending for CSC for overtime violati

[ruminator]

Some news stories that will affect a lot of people that aren't getting a lot of press.

.............damn, now I really wish I didn't do my Christmas shopping at the last minute. Bet the prices don't rollback now.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses a Fortune 500 information technology company of forcing thousands of employees to work unpaid overtime.
Past overtime lawsuits have focused on service industry employees and targeted such giants as Wal-Mart and Taco Bell. But plaintiffs' attorney James Finberg said he believes the suit against Computer Sciences Corporation is the first of its kind in the computer industry. That could not be immediately verified.

"We're talking about tens and thousands of people across the country," Finberg said. "It's a big chunk of their work force."

Computer Sciences, based in El Segundo, Calif., has 92,000 employees.

"CSC has always strived to comply with all state and federal laws. Based on what we know at this time, we believe that we are compliant," company spokeswoman Janet Herin said. "We have not been served with this complaint, and have no further comment at this time."

Finberg said there is an overtime exemption for employees who develop software, but it doesn't apply to workers like the plaintiffs who install software and handle service calls. Former employees Fred Giannetto and James Doran alleged they worked up to 20 hours a week of unpaid overtime.

Attorneys will seek class-action status for the suit, Finberg said.

The company provides consulting, systems integration, and other services. It reported revenue of $13 billion in the fiscal year that ended Oct. 3.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16100524

Lawyers filed a class-action suit against Wal-Mart yesterday in New Jersey, saying it violated federal racketeering laws by conspiring with cleaning contractors to cheat immigrant janitors out of wages.

The suit, in Federal District Court in Newark, seeks to represent thousands of workers who washed and waxed floors nightly in Wal-Mart department stores. It says the company and its contractors violated RICO, the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, by conspiring not to pay the workers overtime. The suit says the cleaners at hundreds of stores generally earned $325 to $500 for working seven nights a week, usually for 56 hours or more each week.


The case was filed 18 days after federal agents raided 60 stores in 21 states to round up 250 janitors described as illegal immigrants. Last week, executives at Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, acknowledged that federal prosecutors had sent a target letter saying the company faced a grand jury investigation over the immigrants.

"This case is about the most powerful and richest company in the world taking obscene advantage of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world," said a lawyer filing the suit yesterday, James L. Linsey.

In the suit, Wal-Mart and its contractors are also accused of failing to make required workers' compensation and Social Security payments and failing to withhold federal payroll taxes. Wal-Mart and its contractors are also accused of mail fraud, wire fraud, bringing in and harboring illegal immigrants and engaging in a "pattern of racketeering activity" to prevent officials from enforcing wage and immigration laws.
http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/10100.php

 

[ruminator]

I'm sensing a serious lack of interest here on these subjects.

I can accept the fact that no one works at CSC or Wal-Mart.

I can accept the fact that no one has these stocks in their investment plans.

I can accept the fact that no one cares about employee rights, corporate tax evasion or civil liberties.

But for God's sake, doesn't anyone care that Wal-Mart now has the perfect excuse to jack up prices right before the busiest season of the year?

 

[Turd-Burglar]

thats crazy!