Week Adjouned: 5.29.09

So, where to start this week?

Top Class Actions:

Wanna be a Hooters girl? Cough up $9.95 for those hot pants (they’re for sale at Hooters—seriously). That’s what eight ladies who used to work at Hooters, specifically 4 Hooters franchises in California, claim in a class action they filed over the working conditions and costs associated with the infamous waitressing positions. Their allegations claim almost Victorian conditions, including having to buy their own trademark uniforms from the restaurants; paying for cash shortages or customer walkouts, or face being disciplined (what could that mean?); and not being paid to work special events. One wonders how much of their earning the waitresses actually take home. You Go Girls!

Many happy returns at Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart’s also back in the news, and the courts, this time the class action complaint alleges that the world’s largest retailer is not living up to the terms of its own return policy. It seems they’re getting petty over sales tax, in that people returning goods to a Wal-Mart store location with a lower applicable sales tax rate than where the merchandise was originally purchased, get reimbursed the lesser sales tax rate. So what happens to the left-over sales tax that’s not reimbursed? Does that go to the government?