I work at Wal-Mart and recently they fired a guy at my store that would clock back in from lunch then would spend an additional 2 hours or so in the break room not working. He got away with this for a short time but was caught.
We have to take a mandatory lunch break according to the 6 hour rule mentioned in the story. I really don;t know where this stuff comes from.
Neither do I and I have witnessed the same thing in our store.
There are still lots of folks that do heavy physical labor (factories,lumber mills,construction work, etc.) and they need their lunch (and I dont mean a latte's and yogurt!)
I have a friend who works part-time at a Wal-Mart and they HAVE to take their breaks and punch in & out for their lunches. It's ingrained in the training employees should know when they punch out or what time they take their 15-minute break.
IMO, these former employees got busted for skirting company policy and now they're crying to the trial lawyers looking for a handout. But they'll never get a dime because Wal-Mart has at least a dozen lawsuits pending before them right now and their lawyers will fight to the death for them rather than getting screwed by a corrupt legal system.