Fishhead said:
uppy: you got that right...Circus circus is a fvcking zoo!!I couldnt believe it when i walked into their sports book...IT was a friggin
chalk board with a little old guy erasing and writing down lines...
when i asked him to put me down for a dime on a game they all looked at me like
:monsters- ...
Foreign, you're probably right-but there are at least several people interested in this, and there is a TON of available research out there that may open a lot of eyes. I know that this thread has probably run it's course, so I'll stop. Well, at least after this (maybe). I'm not making this shit up-it really is THAT BAD!
Wal-Mart employee and labor relations
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Criticism of Wal-Mart. (Discuss)
As with many US retailers, Wal-Mart experiences a high rate of employee turnover (approximately 50% of employees leave every year, according to the company). Although they average nearly double the federal minimum wage, wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores. Founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage.
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[edit] Wages
Wal-Mart employees earn less than those performing similar jobs at other stores. As of 2001, according to US federal statistics, the average supermarket employee earned $10.35 per hour, industry-wide; in comparison, stock clerks at Wal-Mart made $8.23 per hour on average. A 2003 wage analysis reported that cashiers, the second most common job at Wal-Mart, earn approximately $7.92 per hour and work an average of 29 hours a week. This brings in annual wages of $11,948, about $1000 less than the United States federal poverty line for a parent and one child. <SUP class=noprint>[citation needed]</SUP>
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[edit] Minimum wage
Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage, and took advantage of an exception in the minimum wage law that, at the time, excluded small businesses from having to pay the minimum wage. While the federal minimum wage in 1962 was $1.50 an hour, Walton regularly paid his employees only 50 to 70 cents per hour.[1] Former managers have reported that they were judged by upper management based on their ability to keep payroll costs low, and that they sometimes pressured more senior, higher-paid employees, in the hopes that they would quit. [2]
In a move some say to appeal to critics of Wal-Mart's hourly wages practices, CEO Lee Scott has advocated a federally-mandated raise in the minimum wage. [3]
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[edit] Wages and benefits from Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has said that it pays all employees above minimum wage, and that wages for each locality are determined by the cost of living, wages of competitors, and supply of labor within the local market.[4] Critics opine that Wal-Mart pays below an average wage of its competitors, but have not presented evidence to prove this. According to a Global Insight study <SUP class=noprint>[citation needed]</SUP>, a "limited analysis...based on a large sample of employee wage data, did not find evidence to conclude that Wal-Mart pays its workers below-market." According to the Cato Institute, a libertarian research organization, Wal-Mart employees receive the fair wage that consumers are willing to pay for that service. [5]
Economist Jerry Hausman argues that Wal-Mart's low prices and savings are more effective at combating poverty than government programs. [6]
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[edit] Costs to Social Services
Critics of Wal-Mart have argued that Wal-Mart indirectly incurs costs for federal social service programs, due to the low wages it pays its employees. A report by U.S. Democratic Party congressman George Miller argued that a 200-employee Wal-Mart store may indirectly cost federal taxpayers $420,750 to finance free-lunch and health-care programs for children of low-income Wal-Mart employees, tax credits for low-income families, and similar programs. [7][8]
Sebastian Mallaby, a self-described progressive, says that "it's ironic that Wal-Mart's enemies, who are mainly progressives", would be complain about Wal-Mart employees receiving Medicaid. He says: "In the 1990s progressives argued loudly for the reform that allowed poor Americans to keep Medicaid benefits even if they had a job. Now that this policy is helping workers at Wal-Mart, progressives shouldn't blame the company. Besides, many progressives favor a national health system. In other words, they attack Wal-Mart for having 5 percent of its workers receive health care courtesy of taxpayers when the policy that they support would increase that share to 100 percent." [9]
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[edit] Georgia survey
According to a September 2002 survey by the state of Georgia, 10,261 of the 166,000 children enrolled in PeachCare for Kids, the state's health-insurance program for uninsured children, had a parent working for Wal-Mart. For every four of its employees in Georgia, one Wal-Mart child was covered by the program. In contrast, the state's second-biggest employer, Publix, had one child in the program for every 22 employees. [10]
In December 2004, Wal-Mart commissioned a nationwide survey from Segmentation Co., a division of consulting outfit Yankelovich. The survey showed the use of public-assistance health-care programs by children of Wal-Mart workers was at a similar rate to other retailers' employees, and at rates similar to the U.S. population as a whole. However, Wal-Mart has refused to release its survey, nor will it say which other retailers are included in the report. [11]
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[edit] CEO salary
According to US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott earns as much in two weeks as lower-level employees earn in a lifetime. [12]
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[edit] Working conditions
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[edit] Lock-in
The report by congressman Miller alleged that in ten percent of Wal-Mart's stores, nighttime employees are sometimes locked inside, making them unable to leave. In some cases employees who had sustained injuries requiring medical attention were forced to wait inside the store for hours for a manager to arrive and unlock the door. [13][14]
Additionally, there has been some concern over Wal-Mart's policy of locking their nighttime employees in the building, which has been implicated in a longer response time in dealing with various employee emergencies, or weather conditions such as hurricanes in Florida.[15] Wal-Mart has claimed that this policy was made both to protect the workers of stores in high-crime areas, as well as to reduce the risk of employee theft. However, this issue has become less of a problem with the increase in the number of twenty-four hour stores.
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[edit] Employee handbook
In 2005, Wal-Mart published a new German employee handbook which both "caused a furor" among it workers, who disparged its "puritanical ban on interoffice romance" and "invitation to rat on co-workers", and "prompted a flurry of negative headlines in the local press".[16]
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[edit] Potential hire screening
Wal-Mart, like many large American corporations with low-wage employees, screens potential hires through a drug test, in addition to a multiple choice personality test, which asks applicants to express their level of agreement with statements such as "rules have to be followed to the letter at all times." (Ehrenreich, 124)
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[edit] Work policies and labor laws
Wal-Marts official work policies stipulate that no associate is to work off the clock for any reason (and it is in fact illegal for any business to force an employee to work off the clock). Wal-Mart associates are also required to take a lunch break after 6 hours of work, and are also not allowed to work more than 6 days in a row. CEO, Lee Scott, admitted that Wal-Mart does employ a few "knuckleheads" who at times may bend or break the rules, and he continued to assert that Wal-Mart "coaches" and terminates those who violate company policy.
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[edit] Off the clock
It is alleged that Wal-Mart's salaried managers have pressured hourly employees to work "off-the-clock" in order to avoid overtime pay.
As of the time of submission of Wal-Mart's 10-Q Report for the quarterly period ended October 31, 2005, the company faced "numerous cases containing class-action allegations in which the plaintiffs have brought claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), corresponding state statutes, or other laws. The plaintiffs in these lawsuits are current and former hourly Associates who allege, among other things, that the Company forced them to work “off the clock,” or failed to provide work breaks, or otherwise claim they were not paid for work performed."[17]
Wal-Mart's 10-Q further details that "Class certification has yet to be addressed in a majority of the cases. Class certification has been denied or overturned in cases pending in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Some or all of the requested classes have been certified in cases pending in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. Conditional certifications for notice purposes under the FLSA have been allowed in cases in Georgia, Michigan, and Texas."
In 2000, Wal-Mart paid $50 million to settle a class-action suit that asserted that 69,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees in Colorado had worked off-the-clock. These employees, as well as several former managers, have testified that Wal-Mart had an unofficial policy requiring off-the-clock work, to keep the cost of payroll down. [18]
Class-action suits were filed in 1995 on behalf of full-time Wal-Mart pharmacists whose base salaries and working hours were reduced as sales declined, resulting in the pharmacists being treated like hourly employees. Initial judgments ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but an appeal by Wal-Mart resulted in the cases being remanded to a lower court in February 2005 due to insufficient evidence that Wal-Mart committed the offense often enough that the salaries were equivalent to hourly wages. [19] [20]
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[edit] Meal and rest breaks
It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Savaglio v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.. (Discuss)
According to Wal-Mart's 2006 10-K Annual Report for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2006:
[edit] Florida
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[edit] Wal-Mart workers walk out
On October 16, 2006, workers on the morning shift at a Wal-Mart Super Center in Hialeah Gardens, Florida walked out in protest against the new policies and rallied outside the store, shouting "We want justice" and criticizing the company's recent policies as "inhuman." Workers said the number of participants was about 200, or nearly all of the people on the shift. It's the first time that Wal-Mart has faced a worker-led revolt of such scale, according to both employees and the company.
Reasons for the revolt were:
Wal-Mart executives have recently told Wall Street analysts that the company wants to transform its workforce from 20% part-time to 40%. [22]
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[edit] Child labor violations
In January 2004, the New York Times reported on an internal Wal-Mart audit conducted in July 2000 which examined one week's time-clock records for roughly 25,000 employees. According to the New York Times, the audit "pointed to extensive violations of child-labor laws and state regulations requiring time for breaks and meals" including 1,371 instances of minors working too late, during school hours, or for too many hours in a day. There were 60,767 missed breaks and 15,705 lost meal times. Wal-Mart’s vice president for communications, Mona Williams, responded that company auditors had determined that the methodology used was flawed. "This audit is so flawed and invalid that we did not respond to it in any way internally." [23]
Today Wal-mart gets fifteen days' notice before child labor inspections. [24]
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[edit] Arrangement with Department of Labor
Under an arrangement, disclosed by the New York Times, Wal-Mart will be allowed 15 days to investigate and rectify employee complaints before the Department of Labor conducts any investigation. Upon receiving a complaint about a potential violation of wage and hour laws, DOL’s field offices around the country are now instructed to notify the DOL office in Little Rock, Arkansas, which will then notify Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas of the complaint. The Department will not launch its own investigation during that time and it remains unclear under what circumstance it would launch an investigation after the 15 day period ends, Representative George Miller (D-California) requested an investigation by the DOL’s Inspector General to determine whether the arrangement represents a sweetheart deal between the Bush Administration and Wal-Mart. [25]
Critics respond that Wal-Mart's labor law violations range from illegally firing workers who attempt to organize a union to unlawful surveillance, threats, and intimidation of employees who dare to speak out. [“Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart", A Report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/16/04]
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[edit] Illegal use of undocumented workers
According to Jay Nordlinger of the National Review, Wal-Mart executives did know that contractors were using illegal aliens as they had been helping the Federal government with the investigation for the previous three years. [26] Some critics argued that Wal-Mart personally hired illegal aliens, while Wal-Mart claims they were employees of contractors who won bids to work for Wal-Mart. [27]
On October 23, 2003, federal agents raided 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, in a crackdown known as "Operation Rollback". [28] When they left, the agents had arrested 250 nightshift janitors who were undocumented workers. Following the arrests, a grand jury convened to consider charging Wal-Mart executives with labor racketeering crimes for knowingly allowing undocumented workers to work at their stores. The workers themselves were employed by agencies Wal-Mart contracted with for cheap cleaning services. While Wal-Mart executives have tried to lay the blame squarely with the contractors, federal investigators point to wiretapped conversations showing that executives knew the workers were undocumented.
Additionally, some of the janitors have filed a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart alleging both racketeering and wage-and-hour violations. According to the janitors, Wal-Mart and its contractors failed to pay them overtime totaling, along with other damages, $200,000. One of the plaintiffs told the New York Times that he worked seven days per week for eight months, earning $325 for 60-hour weeks ($5.41 per hour), and that he never received overtime pay. A legal question now being raised is whether these undocumented workers even have the right to sue their employers.
The October 2003 raid was not the first time Wal-Mart was caught using undocumented workers. In 1998 and 2001, federal agents arrested 102 undocumented workers at Wal-Mart stores around the country. [29]
In February 2004, "the civil rights suit filed against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. by illegal immigrants was expanded Monday to accuse America’s biggest retailer of locking its janitors inside stores during their shifts."[30]
In March 2005, Wal-Mart settled the lawsuit the government brought against them, for $11 million. "We acknowledge that we should have had better safeguards in place to ensure our contractors were hiring only legal workers", said Mona Williams, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. "That's why we are agreeing to pay the $11 million." [31]
In November 2005, 125 alleged illegal immigrants were arrested while working on construction of a new Wal-Mart distribution center in eastern Pennsylvania. According to Wal-Mart, the workers were employees of Wal-Mart's construction subcontractor. [32]
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[edit] Health insurance
According to an October 2005 article in BusinessWeek, Wal-Mart's health insurance covers 44% or approximately 572,000 of its 1.3 million U.S. workers.[33] In comparison, Wal-Mart rival Costco insures approximately 96% of its eligible workers.[34] Further, Wal-Mart spends an average of $3,500 per employee for health care, 27% less than the retail-industry average of $4,800.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-0>[1]</SUP> Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott acknowledged benefits could improve by claiming Wal-Mart employees can get better value from taxpayer funded health care than from Wal-Mart's own health plans: "In some of our states, the public program may actually be a better value - with relatively high income limits to qualify, and low premiums."[35] On April 17, 2006, Wal-Mart announced it was making a health care plan available to part-time workers after 1 year of service, instead of the prior 2 year requirement. One criticism of the new plan is that it provides benefit only after a $1,000 deductible is paid ($3,000 for a family). These deductibles may financially be out of reach for eligible part-time workers. Wal-Mart estimates this change can add 150,000 workers to health coverage plans, if all who are eligible take part.
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[edit] Wal-Mart and healthcare
According to Jay Nordlinger and Wal-Mart, more than 80% of Wal-Mart associates have healthcare coverage; and according to Wal-Mart more than 150,000 associates have been given healthcare coverage under the new healthcare plan implemented in 2005.
Many critics of Wal-Mart, including those in "Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Prices"[36] argue that employees are paid so little they cannot afford health insurance. According to Jay Nordlinger of the National Review, fifty percent of Wal-Mart employees receive health care coverage through Wal-Mart. This could be in part because Wal-Mart only offers benefits to its part time employees who have been employed there for at least 2 years.
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[edit] Internal memo
On October 26, 2005, The New York Times reported that a Wal-Mart internal memo sent to the firm's board of directors advised trimming over $1 billion in health care expenses by 2011 through measures such as attracting a younger, implicitly healthier work force by offering education benefits. The memo also suggested giving sedentary Wal-Mart staffers, such as cashiers, more physically demanding tasks, such as "cart-gathering", and eliminating full-time positions in favor of hiring part-time employees who would be ineligible for the more expensive health insurance — policy proposals which may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
According to the article, the memo accused Wal-Mart's lower paid employees of abusing emergency room visits, "possibly due to their prior experience with programs such as Medicaid", whereas such visits may actually be due to the reduced ability of uninsured or underinsured people to make timely appointments to see a regular physician. [37]
The memo reportedly also expressed concern that an employee with seniority earns more money, but is not more productive than a new employee.
Critics point to the story as evidence that Wal-Mart purports to be generous with its employee benefits, while in reality the company is working to cut such benefits by reducing the number of full-time and long-term employees and discouraging supposedly unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart. [38]
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[edit] State Legislature actions
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[edit] Maryland
On January 12, 2006, the Maryland legislature enacted a law requiring that all corporations with more than 10,000 employees in the state spend at least 8% of their payroll on employee benefits, or pay into a state fund for the uninsured. Wal-Mart, with about 17,000 employees in Maryland, was the only known company to not meet this requirement before the bill passed.[39][40] On Wednesday July 7, 2006, the Maryland law was overturned in federal court by U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz who held that a federal law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), pre-empted the Maryland law. In his opinion, Motz said that the law would "hurt Wal-Mart by imposing the administrative burden of tracking benefits in Maryland differently than in other states."[41]
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[edit] Wisconsin
On January 19, 2006, "Fair Share Health Care" legislation in Wisconsin was defeated. Wal-Mart spokesperson Nate Hurst stated: "That this bill failed even to make it out of committee in the Wisconsin Assembly is a big setback to the Washington, D.C. union leaders driving these state-by-state attacks against large employers. We're hopeful that more state legislators across America -- like those in Wisconsin -- will come to realize that these bills are harmful to working families. Not only will they do nothing to control the cost of health care or improve access to health coverage, they will cost jobs and hurt economic growth. The American people want their legislators to resist special interest pressure and instead work with colleagues and businesses of all sizes to solve the health care challenges facing America."[42]
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[edit] Opposition to unions
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[edit] Wal-Mart and unions
Wal-Mart states that it is not anti-union but "pro-associate", arguing that its employees need not pay third parties to discuss problems with management as the company's open-door policy enables employees to lodge complaints and submit suggestions all the way up the corporate ladder.[43]
The UFCW has organized pickets outside of Wal-Mart stores in protest of their employee policies.
According to Wal-Mart's own training video, Wal-Mart also believes that remaining without unions benefits associates by not only keeping union dues out of associate pay checks but by also maintaining a merit based promotion system that rewards associates for hardwork and innovation rather than a tenure based union system that rewards laborers for how many years they have worked.[44]
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[edit] Meat cutters
In 2000, meat cutters in Jacksonville, Texas voted to unionize. Wal-Mart eliminated in-house meat-cutting jobs in favor of prepackaged meats on the claims that it cut cost and was a preventive measure to lawsuits. Wal-Mart also claims this nationwide closing of in-store meat packaging had been planned for many years and was not related to the unionization. In June 2003, a National Labor Relations Board judge ordered Wal-Mart to restore the meat department to its prior structure, complete with meat-cutting, and to recognize and bargain with the union over the effects of any change to case-ready meat sales.[45][46][47]
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[edit] Canada
The documentary Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Prices shows one successful unionization of Wal-Mart in Canada in 2004. (Jonquière in the province of Québec) but Wal-Mart closed the store within the year claiming the store had become unprofitable. According to Québec law, Wal-Mart must pay all workers the same wage until they are offered similar employment. Wal-Mart stated that it has no intention of re-opening the store, but the labor union and workers argued the store closing was a retaliation against unionization on the grounds that Wal-Mart has not sold the property.
In September 2005, the Québec Labour Board ruled that the closing of a Wal-Mart store amounted to a reprisal against unionized workers and has ordered the company to compensate former employees.[48] Michael J. Fraser, the union's national director said; "Wal-Mart is trying to send a message to the rest of their employees that if they join a union the same thing could happen to them", The union will be filing unfair labor practice charges against Wal-Mart in Quebec.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has drives in at least 25 Canadian stores. Workers at the Jonquiere store received union certification in August 2004 and Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec has the only remaining unionized Wal-Mart in North America. The Quebec Labour Relations Board found the company guilty of harassing and intimidating workers trying to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union at another store in Ste-Foy, Quebec. [49]
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[edit] Anti-Union tools
In 1970, Sam Walton resisted a unionization push by the Retail Clerks Union in two small Missouri towns by hiring a professional, John Tate, to lecture workers on the negative aspects of unions. On Tate's advice, he also took steps to instruct his workers on how the company had their best interests in mind, encouraging them to air concerns with managers and implementing a profit-sharing program. Shortly after this, Wal-Mart hired a consulting firm, Alpha Associates, to develop a union avoidance program. [50]
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) asserts that Wal-Mart maintains a phone hotline for managers to call if they suspect union activity.[51]
Wal-Mart has an anonymous survey given to each one of its employees, called "Grassroots". The UFCW claims that the purpose of this survey is to let Wal-Mart calculate a Union Probability Index number for each facility, that tells them how likely a union is to form there. UFCW representatives also claim that Wal-Mart listens in on store telephone calls and e-mails, looking for signs of unionization.[52] Wal-Mart also uses this survey to understand associate concerns including pay, relationship with managers, and views on managerial policy and leadership.
It was the opinion of the National Labor Relations Board that Wal-Mart had an illegal section of its anti-handbilling/anti-solicitation policy which according to the NLRB stated that Wal-Mart “strives to provide a solicitation-free atmosphere for our customers” and later added "Our Associates are to be focused on being productive and providing excellent service."; which in the opinion of the NLRB was determined to be too broad and intended to keep associates from receiving solicited material while in store and off the clock. In 2003, Wal-Mart amended this policy in an informal settlement with the National Labor Relations Board so that it now disallows any form of solicitation to take place within the store. [53]
In March 2005, Tom Coughlin was forced to resign from Wal-Mart's board of directors. The company claims that they found evidence of embezzlement by Coughlin. Coughlin claims that the money was used for an anti-union project involving cash bribes paid to employees of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in exchange for a list of names of Wal-Mart employees that had signed union cards. Coughlin also claims the money was unofficially paid to him, by Wal-Mart, as compensation for his anti-union efforts.<SUP>[54]</SUP> Coughlin's claims have, according to the New York Times, seemed less credible with his agreement to plead guilty to federal wire fraud and tax evasion. As the Times notes: "...the lack of evidence that he used the missing money to spy on unions raise doubts as to whether such a project even existed." [55]
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[edit] Workforce diversity
Wal-Mart is currently facing several lawsuits, including a $11 billion gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, representing approximately 1.6 million women. In 2000, Wal-Mart entered into a global settlement with the EEOC for cases of disability discrimination. The company has received improving scores on the Corporate Equality Index, published by the Human Rights Campaign, a measure of how companies treat gay and lesbian employees and consumers. In January 2006, they announced that diversity efforts include new groups of minority, female and gay employees that have started meeting at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville to advise the company on marketing and internal promotion.
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[edit] Disability discrimination
In 2001, the EEOC filed more lawsuits against Wal-Mart for cases of disability discrimination than any other corporation. In July 2001, a top EEOC lawyer stated, "I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law."[56] Wal-Mart and EEOC settled in December 2001 with the EEOC's chief negotiator commenting, "Wal-Mart's willingness to enter into this global settlement, which includes significant nationwide training on the ADA and job offers, clearly demonstrates Wal-Mart's commitment to the ADA."[57]
<DL><DD>See also: Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Mauldin v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and EEOC (Janice Smith) v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. </DD></DL>http://forum.therx.com/
[edit] Current litigation
Wal-Mart may be the most-frequently sued corporate entity in the United States and its legal department has a reputation for aggressive legal tactics.[58] Details of specific, major lawsuits are included below based on each lawsuit's primary subject.
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[edit] Methodology of bonus plans
"A putative class action is pending in California challenging the methodology of payments made under various Associate incentive bonus plans, and a second putative class action in California asserts that the Company has omitted to include bonus payments in calculating Associates' regular rate of pay for purposes of determining overtime. As to the first case (Cruz v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.), the Company cannot estimate the possible loss or range of loss which may arise. The parties have entered into an agreement to settle the second case (Fries v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.), which must be approved by the court in order to become effective. If approved by the court, the settlement will include all class members who do not opt out of the settlement class. The amount to be paid by Wal-Mart under the settlement will not have a material impact on the Company's financial condition or results of operations."[59]
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[edit] Challenge of exempt status
"The Company is currently a defendant in four putative class actions brought on behalf of assistant store managers who challenge their exempt status under state and federal laws, which are pending in California, Michigan, New Mexico, and Tennessee. Conditional certification for notice purposes under FLSA has been granted in one of these cases (Comer v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.). Otherwise, no determination has been made as to class certification in any of these cases."[60]
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[edit] See also
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[edit] Related Books and Films
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[edit] References
Wal-Mart employee and labor relations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
<!-- start content -->
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Criticism of Wal-Mart. (Discuss)
As with many US retailers, Wal-Mart experiences a high rate of employee turnover (approximately 50% of employees leave every year, according to the company). Although they average nearly double the federal minimum wage, wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores. Founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage.
<TABLE class=toc id=toc summary=Contents><TBODY><TR><TD>Contents
[hide]
- <LI class=toclevel-1>1 Wages
- <LI class=toclevel-2>1.1 Minimum wage <LI class=toclevel-2>1.2 Wages and benefits from Wal-Mart <LI class=toclevel-2>1.3 Costs to Social Services
- 1.4 CEO salary
- <LI class=toclevel-2>2.1 Lock-in <LI class=toclevel-2>2.2 Employee handbook
- 2.3 Potential hire screening
- <LI class=toclevel-2>3.1 Off the clock
- 3.2 Meal and rest breaks
- <LI class=toclevel-2>4.1 Wal-Mart workers walk out <LI class=toclevel-2>4.2 Child labor violations <LI class=toclevel-2>4.3 Arrangement with Department of Labor
- 4.4 Illegal use of undocumented workers
- <LI class=toclevel-2>5.1 Wal-Mart and healthcare <LI class=toclevel-2>5.2 Internal memo <LI class=toclevel-2>5.3 State Legislature actions
- <LI class=toclevel-2>6.1 Wal-Mart and unions <LI class=toclevel-2>6.2 Meat cutters <LI class=toclevel-2>6.3 Canada
- 6.4 Anti-Union tools
- <LI class=toclevel-2>8.1 Methodology of bonus plans
- 8.2 Challenge of exempt status
- 10 References
[edit] Wages
Wal-Mart employees earn less than those performing similar jobs at other stores. As of 2001, according to US federal statistics, the average supermarket employee earned $10.35 per hour, industry-wide; in comparison, stock clerks at Wal-Mart made $8.23 per hour on average. A 2003 wage analysis reported that cashiers, the second most common job at Wal-Mart, earn approximately $7.92 per hour and work an average of 29 hours a week. This brings in annual wages of $11,948, about $1000 less than the United States federal poverty line for a parent and one child. <SUP class=noprint>[citation needed]</SUP>
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[edit] Minimum wage
Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage, and took advantage of an exception in the minimum wage law that, at the time, excluded small businesses from having to pay the minimum wage. While the federal minimum wage in 1962 was $1.50 an hour, Walton regularly paid his employees only 50 to 70 cents per hour.[1] Former managers have reported that they were judged by upper management based on their ability to keep payroll costs low, and that they sometimes pressured more senior, higher-paid employees, in the hopes that they would quit. [2]
In a move some say to appeal to critics of Wal-Mart's hourly wages practices, CEO Lee Scott has advocated a federally-mandated raise in the minimum wage. [3]
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[edit] Wages and benefits from Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has said that it pays all employees above minimum wage, and that wages for each locality are determined by the cost of living, wages of competitors, and supply of labor within the local market.[4] Critics opine that Wal-Mart pays below an average wage of its competitors, but have not presented evidence to prove this. According to a Global Insight study <SUP class=noprint>[citation needed]</SUP>, a "limited analysis...based on a large sample of employee wage data, did not find evidence to conclude that Wal-Mart pays its workers below-market." According to the Cato Institute, a libertarian research organization, Wal-Mart employees receive the fair wage that consumers are willing to pay for that service. [5]
Economist Jerry Hausman argues that Wal-Mart's low prices and savings are more effective at combating poverty than government programs. [6]
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[edit] Costs to Social Services
Critics of Wal-Mart have argued that Wal-Mart indirectly incurs costs for federal social service programs, due to the low wages it pays its employees. A report by U.S. Democratic Party congressman George Miller argued that a 200-employee Wal-Mart store may indirectly cost federal taxpayers $420,750 to finance free-lunch and health-care programs for children of low-income Wal-Mart employees, tax credits for low-income families, and similar programs. [7][8]
Sebastian Mallaby, a self-described progressive, says that "it's ironic that Wal-Mart's enemies, who are mainly progressives", would be complain about Wal-Mart employees receiving Medicaid. He says: "In the 1990s progressives argued loudly for the reform that allowed poor Americans to keep Medicaid benefits even if they had a job. Now that this policy is helping workers at Wal-Mart, progressives shouldn't blame the company. Besides, many progressives favor a national health system. In other words, they attack Wal-Mart for having 5 percent of its workers receive health care courtesy of taxpayers when the policy that they support would increase that share to 100 percent." [9]
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[edit] Georgia survey
According to a September 2002 survey by the state of Georgia, 10,261 of the 166,000 children enrolled in PeachCare for Kids, the state's health-insurance program for uninsured children, had a parent working for Wal-Mart. For every four of its employees in Georgia, one Wal-Mart child was covered by the program. In contrast, the state's second-biggest employer, Publix, had one child in the program for every 22 employees. [10]
In December 2004, Wal-Mart commissioned a nationwide survey from Segmentation Co., a division of consulting outfit Yankelovich. The survey showed the use of public-assistance health-care programs by children of Wal-Mart workers was at a similar rate to other retailers' employees, and at rates similar to the U.S. population as a whole. However, Wal-Mart has refused to release its survey, nor will it say which other retailers are included in the report. [11]
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[edit] CEO salary
According to US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott earns as much in two weeks as lower-level employees earn in a lifetime. [12]
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[edit] Working conditions
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[edit] Lock-in
The report by congressman Miller alleged that in ten percent of Wal-Mart's stores, nighttime employees are sometimes locked inside, making them unable to leave. In some cases employees who had sustained injuries requiring medical attention were forced to wait inside the store for hours for a manager to arrive and unlock the door. [13][14]
Additionally, there has been some concern over Wal-Mart's policy of locking their nighttime employees in the building, which has been implicated in a longer response time in dealing with various employee emergencies, or weather conditions such as hurricanes in Florida.[15] Wal-Mart has claimed that this policy was made both to protect the workers of stores in high-crime areas, as well as to reduce the risk of employee theft. However, this issue has become less of a problem with the increase in the number of twenty-four hour stores.
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[edit] Employee handbook
In 2005, Wal-Mart published a new German employee handbook which both "caused a furor" among it workers, who disparged its "puritanical ban on interoffice romance" and "invitation to rat on co-workers", and "prompted a flurry of negative headlines in the local press".[16]
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[edit] Potential hire screening
Wal-Mart, like many large American corporations with low-wage employees, screens potential hires through a drug test, in addition to a multiple choice personality test, which asks applicants to express their level of agreement with statements such as "rules have to be followed to the letter at all times." (Ehrenreich, 124)
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[edit] Work policies and labor laws
Wal-Marts official work policies stipulate that no associate is to work off the clock for any reason (and it is in fact illegal for any business to force an employee to work off the clock). Wal-Mart associates are also required to take a lunch break after 6 hours of work, and are also not allowed to work more than 6 days in a row. CEO, Lee Scott, admitted that Wal-Mart does employ a few "knuckleheads" who at times may bend or break the rules, and he continued to assert that Wal-Mart "coaches" and terminates those who violate company policy.
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[edit] Off the clock
It is alleged that Wal-Mart's salaried managers have pressured hourly employees to work "off-the-clock" in order to avoid overtime pay.
As of the time of submission of Wal-Mart's 10-Q Report for the quarterly period ended October 31, 2005, the company faced "numerous cases containing class-action allegations in which the plaintiffs have brought claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), corresponding state statutes, or other laws. The plaintiffs in these lawsuits are current and former hourly Associates who allege, among other things, that the Company forced them to work “off the clock,” or failed to provide work breaks, or otherwise claim they were not paid for work performed."[17]
Wal-Mart's 10-Q further details that "Class certification has yet to be addressed in a majority of the cases. Class certification has been denied or overturned in cases pending in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Some or all of the requested classes have been certified in cases pending in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. Conditional certifications for notice purposes under the FLSA have been allowed in cases in Georgia, Michigan, and Texas."
In 2000, Wal-Mart paid $50 million to settle a class-action suit that asserted that 69,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees in Colorado had worked off-the-clock. These employees, as well as several former managers, have testified that Wal-Mart had an unofficial policy requiring off-the-clock work, to keep the cost of payroll down. [18]
Class-action suits were filed in 1995 on behalf of full-time Wal-Mart pharmacists whose base salaries and working hours were reduced as sales declined, resulting in the pharmacists being treated like hourly employees. Initial judgments ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but an appeal by Wal-Mart resulted in the cases being remanded to a lower court in February 2005 due to insufficient evidence that Wal-Mart committed the offense often enough that the salaries were equivalent to hourly wages. [19] [20]
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[edit] Meal and rest breaks
It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Savaglio v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.. (Discuss)
According to Wal-Mart's 2006 10-K Annual Report for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2006:
"The Company is a defendant in Savaglio v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a class-action lawsuit in which the plaintiffs allege that they were not provided meal and rest breaks in accordance with California law, and seek monetary damages and injunctive relief. A jury trial on the plaintiff's claims for monetary damages concluded on December 31, 2005. The jury returned a verdict of $57,216,673 in statutory penalties and $115 million in punitive damages. The Company believes that it has substantial defenses to the claims at issue, and intends to challenge the verdict in post-trial motions and, if necessary, on appeal. Meanwhile, the plaintiff's claims for injunctive relief have been tentatively set for trial in June 2006."<SMALL>[21]</SMALL>
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[edit] Florida
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[edit] Wal-Mart workers walk out
On October 16, 2006, workers on the morning shift at a Wal-Mart Super Center in Hialeah Gardens, Florida walked out in protest against the new policies and rallied outside the store, shouting "We want justice" and criticizing the company's recent policies as "inhuman." Workers said the number of participants was about 200, or nearly all of the people on the shift. It's the first time that Wal-Mart has faced a worker-led revolt of such scale, according to both employees and the company.
Reasons for the revolt were:
- Cutting full-time hours from 40 to 32 per week.
- A new attendance policy which many associates view as unfair
- As well as the pay caps that the company imposed this past August.
- Compelling workers to be available to work any shift; day, swing or night. Thus an employee might work one shift one week and an entirely different shift the following week.
- Shifts would be assigned by computers at corporate headquarters; not by local managers.
Wal-Mart executives have recently told Wall Street analysts that the company wants to transform its workforce from 20% part-time to 40%. [22]
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[edit] Child labor violations
In January 2004, the New York Times reported on an internal Wal-Mart audit conducted in July 2000 which examined one week's time-clock records for roughly 25,000 employees. According to the New York Times, the audit "pointed to extensive violations of child-labor laws and state regulations requiring time for breaks and meals" including 1,371 instances of minors working too late, during school hours, or for too many hours in a day. There were 60,767 missed breaks and 15,705 lost meal times. Wal-Mart’s vice president for communications, Mona Williams, responded that company auditors had determined that the methodology used was flawed. "This audit is so flawed and invalid that we did not respond to it in any way internally." [23]
Today Wal-mart gets fifteen days' notice before child labor inspections. [24]
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[edit] Arrangement with Department of Labor
Under an arrangement, disclosed by the New York Times, Wal-Mart will be allowed 15 days to investigate and rectify employee complaints before the Department of Labor conducts any investigation. Upon receiving a complaint about a potential violation of wage and hour laws, DOL’s field offices around the country are now instructed to notify the DOL office in Little Rock, Arkansas, which will then notify Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas of the complaint. The Department will not launch its own investigation during that time and it remains unclear under what circumstance it would launch an investigation after the 15 day period ends, Representative George Miller (D-California) requested an investigation by the DOL’s Inspector General to determine whether the arrangement represents a sweetheart deal between the Bush Administration and Wal-Mart. [25]
Critics respond that Wal-Mart's labor law violations range from illegally firing workers who attempt to organize a union to unlawful surveillance, threats, and intimidation of employees who dare to speak out. [“Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart", A Report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/16/04]
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[edit] Illegal use of undocumented workers
According to Jay Nordlinger of the National Review, Wal-Mart executives did know that contractors were using illegal aliens as they had been helping the Federal government with the investigation for the previous three years. [26] Some critics argued that Wal-Mart personally hired illegal aliens, while Wal-Mart claims they were employees of contractors who won bids to work for Wal-Mart. [27]
On October 23, 2003, federal agents raided 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, in a crackdown known as "Operation Rollback". [28] When they left, the agents had arrested 250 nightshift janitors who were undocumented workers. Following the arrests, a grand jury convened to consider charging Wal-Mart executives with labor racketeering crimes for knowingly allowing undocumented workers to work at their stores. The workers themselves were employed by agencies Wal-Mart contracted with for cheap cleaning services. While Wal-Mart executives have tried to lay the blame squarely with the contractors, federal investigators point to wiretapped conversations showing that executives knew the workers were undocumented.
Additionally, some of the janitors have filed a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart alleging both racketeering and wage-and-hour violations. According to the janitors, Wal-Mart and its contractors failed to pay them overtime totaling, along with other damages, $200,000. One of the plaintiffs told the New York Times that he worked seven days per week for eight months, earning $325 for 60-hour weeks ($5.41 per hour), and that he never received overtime pay. A legal question now being raised is whether these undocumented workers even have the right to sue their employers.
The October 2003 raid was not the first time Wal-Mart was caught using undocumented workers. In 1998 and 2001, federal agents arrested 102 undocumented workers at Wal-Mart stores around the country. [29]
In February 2004, "the civil rights suit filed against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. by illegal immigrants was expanded Monday to accuse America’s biggest retailer of locking its janitors inside stores during their shifts."[30]
In March 2005, Wal-Mart settled the lawsuit the government brought against them, for $11 million. "We acknowledge that we should have had better safeguards in place to ensure our contractors were hiring only legal workers", said Mona Williams, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. "That's why we are agreeing to pay the $11 million." [31]
In November 2005, 125 alleged illegal immigrants were arrested while working on construction of a new Wal-Mart distribution center in eastern Pennsylvania. According to Wal-Mart, the workers were employees of Wal-Mart's construction subcontractor. [32]
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[edit] Health insurance
According to an October 2005 article in BusinessWeek, Wal-Mart's health insurance covers 44% or approximately 572,000 of its 1.3 million U.S. workers.[33] In comparison, Wal-Mart rival Costco insures approximately 96% of its eligible workers.[34] Further, Wal-Mart spends an average of $3,500 per employee for health care, 27% less than the retail-industry average of $4,800.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-0>[1]</SUP> Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott acknowledged benefits could improve by claiming Wal-Mart employees can get better value from taxpayer funded health care than from Wal-Mart's own health plans: "In some of our states, the public program may actually be a better value - with relatively high income limits to qualify, and low premiums."[35] On April 17, 2006, Wal-Mart announced it was making a health care plan available to part-time workers after 1 year of service, instead of the prior 2 year requirement. One criticism of the new plan is that it provides benefit only after a $1,000 deductible is paid ($3,000 for a family). These deductibles may financially be out of reach for eligible part-time workers. Wal-Mart estimates this change can add 150,000 workers to health coverage plans, if all who are eligible take part.
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[edit] Wal-Mart and healthcare
According to Jay Nordlinger and Wal-Mart, more than 80% of Wal-Mart associates have healthcare coverage; and according to Wal-Mart more than 150,000 associates have been given healthcare coverage under the new healthcare plan implemented in 2005.
Many critics of Wal-Mart, including those in "Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Prices"[36] argue that employees are paid so little they cannot afford health insurance. According to Jay Nordlinger of the National Review, fifty percent of Wal-Mart employees receive health care coverage through Wal-Mart. This could be in part because Wal-Mart only offers benefits to its part time employees who have been employed there for at least 2 years.
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[edit] Internal memo
On October 26, 2005, The New York Times reported that a Wal-Mart internal memo sent to the firm's board of directors advised trimming over $1 billion in health care expenses by 2011 through measures such as attracting a younger, implicitly healthier work force by offering education benefits. The memo also suggested giving sedentary Wal-Mart staffers, such as cashiers, more physically demanding tasks, such as "cart-gathering", and eliminating full-time positions in favor of hiring part-time employees who would be ineligible for the more expensive health insurance — policy proposals which may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
According to the article, the memo accused Wal-Mart's lower paid employees of abusing emergency room visits, "possibly due to their prior experience with programs such as Medicaid", whereas such visits may actually be due to the reduced ability of uninsured or underinsured people to make timely appointments to see a regular physician. [37]
The memo reportedly also expressed concern that an employee with seniority earns more money, but is not more productive than a new employee.
Critics point to the story as evidence that Wal-Mart purports to be generous with its employee benefits, while in reality the company is working to cut such benefits by reducing the number of full-time and long-term employees and discouraging supposedly unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart. [38]
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[edit] State Legislature actions
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[edit] Maryland
On January 12, 2006, the Maryland legislature enacted a law requiring that all corporations with more than 10,000 employees in the state spend at least 8% of their payroll on employee benefits, or pay into a state fund for the uninsured. Wal-Mart, with about 17,000 employees in Maryland, was the only known company to not meet this requirement before the bill passed.[39][40] On Wednesday July 7, 2006, the Maryland law was overturned in federal court by U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz who held that a federal law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), pre-empted the Maryland law. In his opinion, Motz said that the law would "hurt Wal-Mart by imposing the administrative burden of tracking benefits in Maryland differently than in other states."[41]
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[edit] Wisconsin
On January 19, 2006, "Fair Share Health Care" legislation in Wisconsin was defeated. Wal-Mart spokesperson Nate Hurst stated: "That this bill failed even to make it out of committee in the Wisconsin Assembly is a big setback to the Washington, D.C. union leaders driving these state-by-state attacks against large employers. We're hopeful that more state legislators across America -- like those in Wisconsin -- will come to realize that these bills are harmful to working families. Not only will they do nothing to control the cost of health care or improve access to health coverage, they will cost jobs and hurt economic growth. The American people want their legislators to resist special interest pressure and instead work with colleagues and businesses of all sizes to solve the health care challenges facing America."[42]
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[edit] Opposition to unions
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[edit] Wal-Mart and unions
Wal-Mart states that it is not anti-union but "pro-associate", arguing that its employees need not pay third parties to discuss problems with management as the company's open-door policy enables employees to lodge complaints and submit suggestions all the way up the corporate ladder.[43]
The UFCW has organized pickets outside of Wal-Mart stores in protest of their employee policies.
According to Wal-Mart's own training video, Wal-Mart also believes that remaining without unions benefits associates by not only keeping union dues out of associate pay checks but by also maintaining a merit based promotion system that rewards associates for hardwork and innovation rather than a tenure based union system that rewards laborers for how many years they have worked.[44]
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[edit] Meat cutters
In 2000, meat cutters in Jacksonville, Texas voted to unionize. Wal-Mart eliminated in-house meat-cutting jobs in favor of prepackaged meats on the claims that it cut cost and was a preventive measure to lawsuits. Wal-Mart also claims this nationwide closing of in-store meat packaging had been planned for many years and was not related to the unionization. In June 2003, a National Labor Relations Board judge ordered Wal-Mart to restore the meat department to its prior structure, complete with meat-cutting, and to recognize and bargain with the union over the effects of any change to case-ready meat sales.[45][46][47]
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[edit] Canada
The documentary Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Prices shows one successful unionization of Wal-Mart in Canada in 2004. (Jonquière in the province of Québec) but Wal-Mart closed the store within the year claiming the store had become unprofitable. According to Québec law, Wal-Mart must pay all workers the same wage until they are offered similar employment. Wal-Mart stated that it has no intention of re-opening the store, but the labor union and workers argued the store closing was a retaliation against unionization on the grounds that Wal-Mart has not sold the property.
In September 2005, the Québec Labour Board ruled that the closing of a Wal-Mart store amounted to a reprisal against unionized workers and has ordered the company to compensate former employees.[48] Michael J. Fraser, the union's national director said; "Wal-Mart is trying to send a message to the rest of their employees that if they join a union the same thing could happen to them", The union will be filing unfair labor practice charges against Wal-Mart in Quebec.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has drives in at least 25 Canadian stores. Workers at the Jonquiere store received union certification in August 2004 and Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec has the only remaining unionized Wal-Mart in North America. The Quebec Labour Relations Board found the company guilty of harassing and intimidating workers trying to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union at another store in Ste-Foy, Quebec. [49]
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[edit] Anti-Union tools
In 1970, Sam Walton resisted a unionization push by the Retail Clerks Union in two small Missouri towns by hiring a professional, John Tate, to lecture workers on the negative aspects of unions. On Tate's advice, he also took steps to instruct his workers on how the company had their best interests in mind, encouraging them to air concerns with managers and implementing a profit-sharing program. Shortly after this, Wal-Mart hired a consulting firm, Alpha Associates, to develop a union avoidance program. [50]
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) asserts that Wal-Mart maintains a phone hotline for managers to call if they suspect union activity.[51]
Wal-Mart has an anonymous survey given to each one of its employees, called "Grassroots". The UFCW claims that the purpose of this survey is to let Wal-Mart calculate a Union Probability Index number for each facility, that tells them how likely a union is to form there. UFCW representatives also claim that Wal-Mart listens in on store telephone calls and e-mails, looking for signs of unionization.[52] Wal-Mart also uses this survey to understand associate concerns including pay, relationship with managers, and views on managerial policy and leadership.
It was the opinion of the National Labor Relations Board that Wal-Mart had an illegal section of its anti-handbilling/anti-solicitation policy which according to the NLRB stated that Wal-Mart “strives to provide a solicitation-free atmosphere for our customers” and later added "Our Associates are to be focused on being productive and providing excellent service."; which in the opinion of the NLRB was determined to be too broad and intended to keep associates from receiving solicited material while in store and off the clock. In 2003, Wal-Mart amended this policy in an informal settlement with the National Labor Relations Board so that it now disallows any form of solicitation to take place within the store. [53]
In March 2005, Tom Coughlin was forced to resign from Wal-Mart's board of directors. The company claims that they found evidence of embezzlement by Coughlin. Coughlin claims that the money was used for an anti-union project involving cash bribes paid to employees of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in exchange for a list of names of Wal-Mart employees that had signed union cards. Coughlin also claims the money was unofficially paid to him, by Wal-Mart, as compensation for his anti-union efforts.<SUP>[54]</SUP> Coughlin's claims have, according to the New York Times, seemed less credible with his agreement to plead guilty to federal wire fraud and tax evasion. As the Times notes: "...the lack of evidence that he used the missing money to spy on unions raise doubts as to whether such a project even existed." [55]
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[edit] Workforce diversity
Wal-Mart is currently facing several lawsuits, including a $11 billion gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, representing approximately 1.6 million women. In 2000, Wal-Mart entered into a global settlement with the EEOC for cases of disability discrimination. The company has received improving scores on the Corporate Equality Index, published by the Human Rights Campaign, a measure of how companies treat gay and lesbian employees and consumers. In January 2006, they announced that diversity efforts include new groups of minority, female and gay employees that have started meeting at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville to advise the company on marketing and internal promotion.
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[edit] Disability discrimination
In 2001, the EEOC filed more lawsuits against Wal-Mart for cases of disability discrimination than any other corporation. In July 2001, a top EEOC lawyer stated, "I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law."[56] Wal-Mart and EEOC settled in December 2001 with the EEOC's chief negotiator commenting, "Wal-Mart's willingness to enter into this global settlement, which includes significant nationwide training on the ADA and job offers, clearly demonstrates Wal-Mart's commitment to the ADA."[57]
<DL><DD>See also: Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Mauldin v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and EEOC (Janice Smith) v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. </DD></DL>http://forum.therx.com/
[edit] Current litigation
Wal-Mart may be the most-frequently sued corporate entity in the United States and its legal department has a reputation for aggressive legal tactics.[58] Details of specific, major lawsuits are included below based on each lawsuit's primary subject.
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[edit] Methodology of bonus plans
"A putative class action is pending in California challenging the methodology of payments made under various Associate incentive bonus plans, and a second putative class action in California asserts that the Company has omitted to include bonus payments in calculating Associates' regular rate of pay for purposes of determining overtime. As to the first case (Cruz v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.), the Company cannot estimate the possible loss or range of loss which may arise. The parties have entered into an agreement to settle the second case (Fries v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.), which must be approved by the court in order to become effective. If approved by the court, the settlement will include all class members who do not opt out of the settlement class. The amount to be paid by Wal-Mart under the settlement will not have a material impact on the Company's financial condition or results of operations."[59]
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[edit] Challenge of exempt status
"The Company is currently a defendant in four putative class actions brought on behalf of assistant store managers who challenge their exempt status under state and federal laws, which are pending in California, Michigan, New Mexico, and Tennessee. Conditional certification for notice purposes under FLSA has been granted in one of these cases (Comer v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.). Otherwise, no determination has been made as to class certification in any of these cases."[60]
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[edit] See also
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[edit] Related Books and Films
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[edit] References
- ^ Wysocki, Bernard Jr., and Ann Zimmerman. "Wal-Mart Cost-Cutting Finds a Big Target in Health Benefits", Wall Street Journal, 2003-09-30, p. 1.
levistep said:
No problem Levi, but you need to stop tryng to simplify things (as some others are doing as well) and just saying we are all "anti business" or hate a free market economy. It's nowhere near that simple an issue. If you want to just simplify it like that, then you could say being against ANY move that would make more money for companies, like doing away with unions altogether, using cheap child labor, not paying for disabilities, could be lumped in as being "anti business" since it finacially hurts the business to pay the extra money. But of course it's not that simple, companies can make money but they have to follow some rules as well for the sake of the people who work for them. You can't just lump everything together and say "you're just anti business", that's very narrow minded. These are actual important issues that have nothing to do with being anti business and have to do with the well being of the workers, the shoppers, and the country as a whole!
As I said, people will find any way they can to justify shopping there so they can enjoy their low prices and not deal with the issues. But these low prices have a price as well!
Seymour said:
Total snob and pretender. It's so obvious though that Blue Edwards is criticizing people at Walmart in an attempt to feel better about himself.
It's actually a common practice by humans, label others inferior to feel better about oneself.
So Blue has a bad day, he goes on a sports forum and like a broad tells everyone he actually step foot in a Walmart and how horrible it was. Explaining the smell and the people like they were inferior to him. Judging people etc. Sounds like some thing Paris Hilton would do or some other rich primadonna.
I don't know about you guys but I'm actually shocked I'm hearing this from a man. Men simply do not complain that they walk into a Walmart and can't handle the smell thats something for broads to talk about it.
Blue is basically stating that he is a different class of human being then of those that frequent Walmart which is appalling.
Boo to Blue Edwards.. Boo..
G. MONEY said:
Disagree 100% he degraded Mexicans in another thread And I personally believe he tried to take a cheap shot at me in another thread but of course he didn't mention any names cause he is just a pure puss.
I bet the guy has never been a fight his whole life.
Merry X-Mas to you G.. Hope you and your family have a great holiday season.
I love the day after X-MAS-- Opening Day @ SANTA ANITA!!!
This has gotten stupid now. Reality bites for those who hate WM, but you know what? At the end of the day Americans love a bargain and aren't going to change. Keep crying, nothing is going to change. The average American is smart enough to realize your complaining is pathetic. If workers think they get treated by WM they wouldn't be turning out in droves to work there. If companies thought WM was screwing them over too much they would say no thanks to WM as their distributor. If overseas factories were so badly treating their employees they would stop showing up by the thousands for jobs. It really is as simple as that. Stop whining and bitching about it because it really sounds like a bunch of "victims" crying the world isn't fair and should be a better place. The world is what it is and businesses like this will only grow bigger and more powerful. Trying to stop it is like trying to stop a flood with a couple of sandbags. Fling crap at me and the millions of others who shop at places like WM all you want, but I'm just going to live in the real world and make the choices which work best for me. Thank you very much.
