Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, agreed to pay $54.3 million to settle a Minnesota lawsuit over wages after a judge ruled the company broke state laws by requiring employees to work off-the-clock.

The settlement covers workers employed between Sept. 11, 1998, and Nov. 14, 2008, at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations, the retailer said today in a statement. The agreement prevents the case from being presented to a jury, which would have been asked to order Wal-Mart to pay as much as $2 billion.

The company required hourly employees to work off-the-clock during training and denied full rest or meal breaks in violation of state wage-and-hour laws, Hastings, Minnesota, District Judge Robert King Jr. ruled July 1, following a non-jury trial. King said Wal-Mart broke labor laws more than 2 million times and ordered the retailer to give employees $6.5 million in back pay.

The plaintiffs, who represent about 100,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees, “are gratified that these hourly workers will now be paid after seven years of litigation,” Justin Perl, their co-lead counsel, said today in a statement.

The settlement includes a “substantial” fine to be paid to the state, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart said in the statement, without being specific. The agreement must be approved by a judge. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 14.

As part of the settlement, Wal-Mart agreed to maintain various electronic systems to ensure it complies with Minnesota wage laws. The exact amount of the settlement will depend on the number of claims that are submitted, Wal-Mart said.

Wage Violations

“Wal-Mart’s failure to compensate plaintiffs was willful,” King wrote in his 151-page decision in July. “Wal-Mart was on notice from numerous sources of the wage and hour violations at issue and failed to correct the problem.”

The lawsuit is one of more than 70 cases, including class actions, or group, suits, in which Wal-Mart has been accused of wage-law violations. The retailer lost a $78 million jury verdict in Pennsylvania in 2006 over rest breaks and unpaid work and a $172 million verdict in California in 2005 over meal breaks.

Wal-Mart workers in Massachusetts won permission to sue as a group on Sept. 23, when the state’s highest court overturned a lower-court ruling that denied certification of the suit.

The Minnesota plaintiffs are Nancy Braun, who worked at a Wal-Mart store in Apple Valley; Debbie Simonson and Cindy Severson, who worked in Brooklyn Park; and Pamela Reinert, who worked at stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Each said she worked off-the-clock and was denied meal and rest breaks.

The case is Braun v. Wal-Mart Inc., 19-CO-01-9790, District Court, Dakota County, First Judicial District, Minnesota (Hastings).

To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Schneider in Toronto at jschneider5@bloomberg.net; Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 9, 2008 09:35 EST