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DENVER (AP) - A decade-old lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of violating federal labor laws on overtime pay began a new round of federal court hearings Tuesday with attorneys for both sides fighting over how to react to a key decision earlier this year.
The hearings once again spotlight a 1995 suit by three Colorado pharmacists, claiming the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer improperly deprived them of overtime pay. By early 1997, it had grown to a class-action lawsuit covering about 900 pharmacists around the country who said they were owed overtime pay and damages for times the company shifted their hours and salaries.
Before the case went to trial, U.S. District Judge Zita Weinshienk ruled in the pharmacists' favor in August 1999, saying Wal-Mart's compensation system circumvented federal rules by classifying pharmacists as salaried employees ineligible for overtime pay.
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