On December 22, 2005, an Alameda County jury in California awarded $172 million to thousands of current and former Wal-Mart employees who claimed the retail giant illegally deprived them of lunch breaks.

Wal-Mart must pay $57 in general damages and $115 million in punitive damages to about 116,000 employees, the jury ruled after a four-month trial in a class-action lawsuit.

The jury found that the world's largest retailer violated a 2001 state law that requires employers to give 30-minute, unpaid lunch breaks to employees who work at least six hours.

The company says it has remedied past practices and has announced it will appeal the verdict. Nonetheless, $172 million is an amount most employers would not care to carry in their accounting liability column.

How can you avoid the same problem WalMart faced?

By knowing what the requirements are in your location and through careful adoption of legal requirements as minimum thresholds of policy. States often vary in their labor laws, so checking each state in which you operate for their meal and rest period requirements is a good idea. Your labor or management attorney can help you with that exercise.

Download One-Page Summary of California Requirements

In the mean time, if you would like to have a one-page summary of the California requirements, you are welcome to click here for a copy in PDF Format (14.34 KB). This summary was prepared by the California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, and was revised last in June 2005.

As an added bonus, you will also get on the same page, information about employer requirements to allow break time to express breast milk.

Good luck with your efforts.