Calif. Cashiers Accuse Walmart of Breaching 2018 Seating Settlement

According to a recent motion from Walmart employee counsel, the retail giant has violated terms of a 2018 $65 million settlement by failing to provide seating to cashiers.

The Walmart employees argue Walmart has failed to comply with settlement terms by not providing seating to their cashiers. As such, Walmart employee counsel asks U.S. District Judge Edward Davila to take action against the company giant, up to holding it in contempt of court and ordering it to pay sanctions.

“Visits a month ago by private investigators to 45 randomly selected Walmart stores show that there are virtually no seats and virtually no seated cashiers,” the Walmart cashier employees reveal. “The evidence compiled to date also indicates that Walmart has continued to require a doctor’s note in order to obtain a seat, even from pregnant cashiers.”

The Walmart employee counsel says the real question is “whether Walmart ever really started the seating program or has Walmart been defrauding everyone since 2018?”

The $65 million settlement was preliminarily approved in December 2018. Under the terms of the deal, $10.7 million was dispersed between thousands of Walmart employees in California who had worked for the company since 2008.

The rest of the settlement was used to compensate class counsel, along with a hefty $42.8 million payment to the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency under the state’s Private Attorneys General Act.

This California labor law allows plaintiffs to file lawsuits on behalf of themselves, other workers and the state. If PAGA claims are successfully litigated, a portion of the recovery pays the state’s labor agency.

In addition to providing payments and resolving nine years of litigation, the Walmart cashier employee class action settlement provided nonmonetary relief.

Under these terms, Walmart is required to provide seating to cashiers under California’s suitable seating law.

The settlement allowed Walmart to remove the seats only if the new accommodations resulted in “increased injuries or accidents” or if they harm the “the quality and effectiveness of the cashier’s overall job performance.”

However, according to the recent motion from Walmart employee attorneys, Walmart “flouted” these obligations and has largely failed to provide suitable seating to its cashiers.

Allegedly, the Walmart employee counsel investigated the issue and found most cashiers were not provided with seating by their employer.

Even worse, the “relatively tiny number” of seats near checking lanes were allegedly unsuitable for use due to their “heavy, non-adjustable, or bulky” nature — failing to satisfy the “suitable” mandate in the California wage order.

The lawyers further argue that conversations with Walmart cashiers revealed employees were unable to use the subpar seating provided without a doctor’s note. The Walmart employees argue these requirements do not comply with the 2018 settlement terms.

“Under the Settlement Agreement, Walmart has had an affirmative, ‘ongoing obligation’ to provide seats for all front-end cashiers who choose to have them,” the Walmart employees argue.

In their motion, the cashiers ask the court to force Walmart to comply with limited discovery of the company’s noncompliance.

Additionally, the legal professionals ask that Walmart be forced to show why it shouldn’t be forced to pay monetary sanctions.

The Walmart employees note that “[c]ourts have ‘inherent power to enforce compliance with their lawful orders through civil contempt’” and can use this power to either force Walmart to comply, defend its noncompliance or pay sanctions for its alleged failure to comply.

In a statement to Law360, Walmart said its California locations provide seats to Walmart employees who request them. The retail giant also pointed out that the lawyers who filed the recent motion in court are not the attorneys designated as class counsel by the settlement terms.

Did you benefit from the Walmart employee class action settlement from two years ago? Have you been offered seating options while on the job? Share your experiences in the comment section below.

The Walmart employees are represented by Melissa Grant, Bevin Allen Pike, Orlando Villalba and Jamie Greene of Capstone Law APC and Kevin McInerney.

The Walmart Cashier Employee Class Action Lawsuit is Brown, et al v. Wal-Mart Store Inc., Case No. 5:09-cv-03339, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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