It's beyond me how a court could side with those parasite slackers who should be grateful just to have a job at Wal-Mart. Everybody knows that cushy fringe benefits will inevitably raise the prices for our precious Chinese imported goods.

And as always, the lawyers get the majority of a class action settlement. Who'd have thunk it.

Gee, Lex, last I looked, $10M wasn't anywhere close to a majority of $35M.

Makes you wonder what the billings of the defense firms were, doesn't it? The plaintiffs' lawyers found a remedy for their clients and got them a big chunk of money that the employer owes them -- what did the defense lawyers do other than bill, bill, bill, delay, delay, delay, and bill some more? Or do you only hate attorneys who help people? (Funny, I thought libertarians were supposed to believe in people standing up for their rights.)

I thought libertarians were supposed to believe in people standing up for their rights

I don't think there is a "right" to a coffee break anywhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights.

The imposed requirement of an employer-paid coffee break by the government is the only arguable rights violation here.

That said, Walmart was stupid to fall into this well-known and avoidable litigation trap.

You have a right to hold your employer to the terms of employment, which are partially privately negotiated and partially publicly dictated. The imposed requirement of rest time is, much like the imposed requirement that we not employ eight-year olds, one of the publicly dictated terms that employers are not allowed to force people to give up.

There was no "litigation trap" here -- Wal-Mart has had a systematic policy of squeezing employees with unpaid overtime and denying rest breaks. You don't need a speed trap to catch the guy blowing down the road at 100 mph.

Calm down George. I just pointed out that coffee breaks are not the sorts of "rights" that most libertarians would recognize.

Perhaps you are more comfortable believing that "rights" are simply a legal expectation dictated by a political process? If so, then you probably aren't a libertarian.

But if that's your view of the world, its fine with me. Go ahead and proclaim a "rights violation" every time your employer passes you over for a promotion.

I believe that you have a fundamental right to voice opinions like that, of course I also believe that your employer has the right to fire you for being annoying.

By my calculation -

25 Million in damages net after the Attorneys

88000 workers

$284.09 each

I'm _not_ a libertarian, although I presume LexusLibertarian is, and libertarians are forever citing sanctity of contract. Contracts include the law in force when the contract is negotiated.

So while I never suggested that coffee breaks are a fundamental right, the right not to have your employer steal from you is.