From the Kansas City Star:

A judge on Tuesday certified as a class action a lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of underpaying hourly workers in its Missouri stores.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Sandra C. Midkiff’s ruling affects between 160,000 and 200,000 former and current Wal-Mart employees who worked at Wal-Mart Discount Stores, Wal-Mart Supercenters and Sam’s Club stores from Aug. 15, 1996 through June 30, 2003.

The lawsuit, which was filed in 2001, chargescontends that the world’s largest retailer committed “acts of wage abuse” against its hourly employees by forcing them to work off the clock, failing to pay them overtime, and preventing them from taking rest and lunch breaks.

“One of the interesting things about the judge’s opinion is that she bases it on the systematic policy and management direction out of Bentonville, Ark.Arkansas,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Larry Ward of Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, referring to Wal-Mart’s headquarters. “It’s an overall policy designed to reduce labor costs by failing to pay employees for all of their breaks.”