Wal-Mart Settles; Secunda in Wall Street Journal

Our own Paul Secunda was quoted in the Wall Street Journal today on Wal-Mart’s huge settlement of wage claims in sixty-three lawsuits.  Here is a taste:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. agreed Tuesday to pay up to $640 million to settle 63 suits alleging it routinely underpaid employees around the country, ending years of embarrassing legal battles over its treatment of workers. . . .

Paul M. Secunda, an associate professor at Marquette University Law School, suggested Wal-Mart wanted to settle the lawsuits not just to avoid potentially more costly defeats in the courtroom, but to resolve issues that might be used to argue for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation, expected to be considered by Congress next year, is fiercely opposed by Wal-Mart because the company worries it will make it easier for workers to unionize.

“This is part of their overall strategy to get their labor house in order, and compared to what unionization might cost them, I think they probably realized it was a small price to pay,” Mr. Secunda said.

The full article is available here.

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