A judge has ordered retailing giant Walmart to pay $54 million dollars in damages to more than 800 California truck drivers who worked for the company between 2005 and 2015.
According to California law, an employee must be paid at least minimum wage for all work activity. Because Walmart truck drivers are paid only by miles driven, the drivers’ attorneys claimed that they were essentially working for free during required non-driving tasks such as a pretrip inspections and mandatory breaks during trips.
Walmart argued that the per-mile-pay rate was enough to cover non-driving tasks.
“When you pay a baker $20 to bake a cake, what are you paying that baker to do?” Walmart’s attorney Scott Edelman argued in court. “Is it just to put the cake in the oven for however long?
Because that’s essentially what the plaintiffs are arguing.”
The jury sided with the drivers however, awarding them $54 million in back-pay. Because of the decision, the retailer may also be subject to significant state penalties for violating employment laws.