Walmart paying $65 million to settle suit over forcing prolonged standing

Walmart is paying nearly $65 million to over 100,000 past and present cashiers from all of their California locations. A lawsuit was filed against Walmart in California, claiming they violated state law by refusing to provide employees with seating during their shifts.

The case will go to trial later this year, but Walmart maintains it has not done anything wrong. A settlement has been reached and is now waiting for approval from a federal judge. Business Insider has said that Walmart will begin providing stools for their cashiers in California.

The suit comes as Walmart continues to face bad publicity, including a serious parking lot rage that landed a woman in jail.

If approved, the settlement will be the largest reached under California's Private Attorney General Act. According to the PAGA, workers have the ability to sue their employer on behalf of California. However, they are only entitled to a quarter of any money they win from the suit. The suit was one of the original suits to be filed under a regulation that requires seating for employees.

Walmart is crying foul over the lawsuit

A regulation was established in 1911, that was approved and applied to women in the retail industry. It continued to be expanded and tweaked over the last century.

Walmart has defended itself saying having stools at the registers would be a safety hazard and could make employees less productive. Walmart has said that cashier duties do not "reasonably permit seating," because cashiers often need to scan large items, bag items and may need to do work away from registers.

According to Patch, Walmart currently offers stools to cashiers that are disabled or have a medical condition, as well as to those who are pregnant.

Walmart has allowed store managers the ability to provide stools to cashiers on a case-by-case basis. They previously faced a lawsuit in 2016 over discrimination.

Walmart is not the only one to face this type of lawsuit

Walmart and a whole lot of companies have faced lawsuits regarding proper seating. Bank of America was sued and ended up paying $15 million.

Other suits have been filed against companies including CVS, Kmart, AT&T, Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase.

Walmart continues to face a handful of suits. Last month, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a suit against Walmart, alleging the company was forcing pregnant workers at a Wisconsin store to go on unpaid leave.

Former Walmart employee Nisha Brown filed the suit in the U.S. Superior Court of Alameda. She filed the suit on behalf of the 100,000 cashiers impacted and are eligible to receive payouts from the settlement. The case has been filed under Brown v. Walmart Inc. We will have to wait and see if this will have a ripple effect across all Walmart locations across the country.