Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world, with just over 2 millions employees on its payroll. So when the company does something wrong, there are usually a lot of people involved and for that reason, Wal-Mart often finds itself the subject of class action lawsuits.
An article today from Bloomberg News notes that there are currently over 70 lawsuits currently pending against Wal-Mart which deal with wage-and-hour violations alone. A 2005 federal law, which ruled that any lawsuit involving parties from multiple states and damages exceeding $5 million must go to federal court, means some of the cases filed since 2005 and currently pending against Wal-Mart will be combined. This had included class action suits from Delaware, South Dakota, Nevada and Alaska, until U.S. District Judge Phillip Pro denied their class status in June. Today’s article asserts that Wal-Mart stands to benefit from the 2005 law, which could make it harder for employees to collectively litigate against the company.
Whether Wal-Mart “shaved” time off employees’ schedules is not up for debate here: Judge Pro explained each wage-and-hour violation will simply be treated individually. Wal-Mart continues to look for ways to spend as little as possible on payroll, even if this means unfairly compensating employees for their hours worked. Rulings such as this one make it more difficult for employees to change Wal-Mart as a whole, but the company should stop breaking labor laws in the first place and pay its workers fairly.
Wal-Mart Shareholders Benefit From Judge’s Pay Ruling [Bloomberg News]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., facing as much as $2 billion in damages in a Minnesota employee-pay trial, may be shielded from similar cases in the future thanks to a 2005 federal law.
The statute requires federal courts to handle class-action lawsuits of $5 million or more when plaintiffs and defendants are from different states. Because judges have been less willing to certify these cases as class actions, the law may save Wal-Mart as much as $5 billion, said Robert Bonsignore, lead workers’ attorney in Nevada suits against the world’s largest retailer. That’s equivalent to 77 percent of Wal-Mart’s $6.5 billion first- half profit.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
The way is clear for Wal-Mart groundbreaking [Anchorage Daily News]
Clear of its last major hurdle with the municipal bureaucracy, retail giant Wal-Mart is looking ahead to breaking ground on a pair of East Anchorage stores early next year.
By sometime in 2010, according to company spokeswoman Jennifer Spall, the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club planned near DeBarr and Muldoon roads could be open for business.
Years in the works, the project sailed through a final review before the municipal Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday night. Hardly a critical comment was heard at a public hearing on the once-volatile project that bounced from the commission to the Anchorage Assembly to District Court and back to the commission.
Angela Chambers, a senior planner in the municipal zoning division, said a few issues involving building elevation, landscaping and noise questions are still to be worked out. But the major pre-construction municipal review of the project is done. She noted that the project, which first went before the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2006 as a rezoning request, can attribute its lengthy approval process to the complexities that grew out of the change in zoning originally sought.
In early plans, Wal-Mart proposed an elaborate project that included a park, a wide boulevard through the site and a plaza amid the parking lots and buildings. Those plans, however, required rezoning part of the property on the site.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Wal-Mart attracts renewed support for Muldoon store [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)]
Wal-Mart heads into a public hearing early next month on a planned East Anchorage project with a fresh, one-sided vote of support from the Northeast Community Council. But some council members say a company effort to rally supporters of the project to a recent meeting might have tilted the vote.
Skewed or not, the 25-8 vote of the community council backed the company’s latest plan for a Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club at Muldoon and DeBarr roads—a backing the company aggressively sought. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said in an e-mail to reporters after the vote that the company was “very proud” to have the council’s recommendation.
Council members, however, say last week’s meeting included an unusual number of Wal-Mart employees. Further, some voting in favor of the plan regretted that a more elaborate development plan that included additional landscaping and traffic amenities was no longer on the table.
“I didn’t like this plan nearly as much as the one that had been negotiated in the past,” said former council president Peggy Robinson, who was among the 25. “I had the feeling there were others who felt the same way.”
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Victory over Wal-Mart rezoning costliest to locals [Voice of the Times (Alaska)]
WHO CAN BLAME Wal-Mart for its decision to stuff two stores onto a 33-acre, already commercially zoned piece of land in Muldoon after a judge tossed out an Anchorage Assembly rezoning of 21 additional acres the mega-store had wanted to use.
After all, the company was looking at a painfully lengthy, expensive process of jumping through hoops again for the additional 21-acre rezoning. It has chosen, instead, to put a Wal-Mart superstore and a Sam’s Club on the 33 acres it owns and already had rezoned.
What does the downsizing mean to the people who live in Muldoon? A reduced quality of life. Tossed out with the rezoning were a two-acre park Wal-Mart planned to donate, a 200-foot buffer zone, a plaza and other amenities negotiated by the city and the Northeast Community Council.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart squeezes Muldoon site plan into commercial zone [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)]
Foes of a new Muldoon Wal-Mart won their battle, but it looks like Wal-Mart will win the war.
Mega-complex will sit in smaller area after rezone is blocked in court.
When a judge earlier this year tossed out the Anchorage Assembly’s vote to rezone parcels of land owned by the mega-retailer, Wal-Mart refused to surrender. Instead, it went back to the drawing board. Literally.
Rather than seek a new rezoning of 21 acres in the original plan, Wal-Mart decided to squeeze its stores onto a smaller, already commercially zoned piece of land.
What the neighborhood faces now is a design that puts a supercenter and Sam’s Club near the intersection of Muldoon and DeBarr roads, just like before. But the new plan, which doesn’t need Assembly approval, eliminates many of the amenities that sweetened the previous plan.
Gone is a two-acre park Wal-Mart would have donated to the city.
Gone is a 200-foot green buffer that would have separated the stores from homes on adjacent Old Harbor Road.
Gone is a wide boulevard, complete with medians filled with plants, that would have curved through the site.
Gone is a plaza that would have offered a respite amid the parking lots and big-box buildings.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart inks deal [Penninsula Clarion (Ala.)
Sought after by some cities and shunned by others, retail giant Wal-Mart on Monday signed closing documents and agreed to wire $3.75 million into the city of Kenai’s account for the purchase of airport reserve land.
Nearly two years in the works, the completed agreement sets the stage for a planned 210,799 square-foot super store to be built behind the Kenai Chrysler Center on the Kenai Spur Highway.
Kenai City Manager Rick Koch, City Attorney Cary Graves and City Clerk Carol Freas were in a Kenai title company office early Monday morning to sign closing documents.
The final selling price is for 38.224 acres of airport reserve land, Koch said.
Proceeds from the sale will be deposited into the airport land fund, also referred to as the airport permanent fund, he said.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart to build new stores on smaller property [KTUU-TV (Anchorage, AK.)]
After a long zoning battle that included a detour to Superior Court, Wal-Mart appears ready to build two stores on a smaller piece of property.
Wal-Mart owns 54 acres near the Debarr and Muldoon roads intersection and has sought a re-zone to use all of that land, which the Anchorage Assembly approved.
But last month a judge ordered the issue sent back to the city planning commission.
Wal-Mart has subsequently opted to go ahead with plans to build the two stores anyway, but on a smaller, 33-acre lot that is already properly zoned.
The stores will include a Supercenter and Sam’s Club.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart revisited [Anchorage Daily News]
Wal-Mart foes in Muldoon won a victory in court, but they could end up losing in the neighborhood.
A Superior Court judge threw out the Anchorage Assembly’s vote that approved rezoning 54 acres off DeBarr near Muldoon Road. Wal-Mart plans a new Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club store there.
As part of the rezoning, the city and the Northeast Community Council negotiated all sorts of concessions. Wal-Mart agreed to add a park, build a boulevard-style road, and widen the green buffer between the stores and houses behind them.
All of that got tossed out with the court decision.
Without the rezoning, Wal-Mart can still build on 30-some acres on the Muldoon site that are already classified as industrial land. During the two-year battle over this proposed development, Wal-Mart officials said they thought they could squeeze two stores onto the smaller portion if necessary.
They haven’t announced what they’ll do in the aftermath of the court ruling.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart issue is postponed [Anchorage Daily News]
The Anchorage Assembly on Friday postponed action in response to a Superior Court ruling that it violated its own rules when it rezoned 54 acres of Muldoon land for a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The issue likely will be taken up at a meeting Tuesday night.
Judge Sharon Gleason ruled last week that Assembly members shouldn’t have allowed Assemblyman Dan Coffey, who owns part of a shopping mall near the site, to vote on the project.
The request, which had been substantially changed by the Assembly, should have been sent back to the planning and zoning commission for review, Gleason wrote. The Assembly now has several options, including asking Gleason to reconsider, appealing her ruling or taking up the issue anew. Though some Assembly members appeared ready to take action Friday, municipal attorneys said they could not because the meeting was advertised as informational.
A lawyer representing Wal-Mart at the meeting wouldn’t comment on whether the company plans to resubmit its rezoning request.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Judge says Wal-Mart plans improperly handled [KTUU-TV (Alaska)]
A superior court judge invalidated a city rezone that allowed a proposed East Anchorage Wal-Mart project to move forward.
At issue is whether an Assemblyman should have recused himself from approving the measure and also whether the Assembly violated its own procedures.
The judge said yes on both points.
The Assembly approved a land rezone in East Anchorage, a substitute ordinance, allowing Wal-Mart to add a Sam’s Club to its plans in Oct. 2006.
At the time Assemblyman Dick Traini had concerns.
“I voted against this item,” said the Assemblyman, who represents Midtown. “I felt it needed to go back to planning and zoning for another look at new package because it was so substantially different.”
It now seems the Assembly should’ve agreed with Traini.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Judge tosses out city’s Wal-Mart rezoning [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)]
The Anchorage Assembly broke its own rules when it rezoned 54 acres of land for a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Sam’s Club in Muldoon, a Superior Court judge has ruled.
Meantime, Wal-Mart is asking to delay opening a new Supercenter across town by up to two years.
The court ruling came Friday. Judge Sharon Gleason wrote that Assembly members shouldn’t have allowed Assemblyman Dan Coffey, who owns part of a shopping mall near the proposed Wal-Mart, to cast the deciding vote on the project.
Lawyers on both sides of the case say that means it’s as if the rezone never happened. That could sink Wal-Mart’s current plans for the Muldoon stores unless the company gets a brand-new stamp of approval from the city.
“Our elected officials, our government, was operating improperly. ... We had lost our voice,” said Wally Stuart, who filed the lawsuit.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Many communities are eager to see a new Wal-Mart come to town, but few think of the effect the retailer will have if and when it leaves. This article from Minnesota’s St. Cloud Times gives a local perspective to the retailer’s global prospects. Visit Battle-Mart for more information about fighting Wal-Mart in your local community.
Wal-Mart’s exit is boon, bane for communities [St. Cloud Times (Minn.)]
An empty Wal-Mart building sits along a stretch of road in Little Falls and shoppers have been rerouted to a newer, bigger Wal-Mart down the street.
Its owners have taken care of the old building after the Wal-Mart Supercenter was built in August. It’s been repainted a shade of light green, masking signs of what once thrived there.
At any given time, about 300 to 400 former Wal-Mart stores sit empty around the nation, in some cases for as long as five to seven years, said Ken Stone, a retired professor from Iowa State University who has studied Wal-Mart for about 20 years. Those empty buildings can be a blight to a community and area businesses if they sit untouched for too long.
“It’s a real problem, there’s no question about it,” Stone said.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Plans for Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club in Muldoon approved by city [Anchorage Daily News]
Love it or hate it, Wal-Mart now has permission to build a new supercenter and a Sam’s Club in Muldoon.
The city planning commission on Monday Oapproved plans for the company to put the stores along DeBarr Road, just west of Fred Meyer. Construction is expected to begin next year.
The decision wasn’t easy, considering neighbors’ worries about the size of project, said commissioner Nancy Pease.
Pease added a requirement that Wal-Mart include more landscaping in the store parking lots. Still, she said, the design is a step in the right direction for big retail development in the city.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart : Bigger isn’t better for Muldoon [Anchorage Daily News]
OK, everybody, who’s surprised? Were you shocked that Wal-Mart plans to build bigger stores in Muldoon?
We weren’t, but still it’s a disappointment.
Wal-Mart intends to build a Sam’s Club and a Wal-Mart store on DeBarr near Muldoon Road, next to Fred Meyer.
This type of store is not what Muldoon residents who spoke out last year wanted—they didn’t want a giant, boxy store at all.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian | Permalink
At 66, Barbara Flory had been a loyal greeter for almost 13 years at a Wal-Mart in Anchorage, Alaska. But no longer...and why you may ask? Because if there’s one thing a person can’t do while sitting on a stool, its greet customers as they enter a Wal-Mart.
After having repeatedly asked her employer to allow her to sit on a stool a few minutes each hour – a brief respite to allow pain from a pinched nerve and herniated disc to subside – she found her requests denied and herself placed on unpaid medical leave.
Flory has since filed a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), in addition to asking a federal judge in Anchorage to put her back to work. Her claims are emblematic of what has been a consistent if underreported issue with Wal-Mart, namely repeated failures to properly accommodate disabled employees.
Wal-Mart has, in the past, used illegal pre-employment questionnaires to obtain disability information on applicants. Title I of the ADA prohibits private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, and in 2001 Wal-Mart and the EEOC reached a $6.8 million consent decree which resolved 13 lawsuits the commission had pending against the corporation in 11 states.
As part of the settlement, with the the rising number of suits against the retailer, Wal-Mart agreed to change its ADA policies and procedures. Whether Wal-Mart, known for its centralized policies and the control it exerts from Bentonville, needs to reconsider how it functions within the ADA may be a valid question, as cases continue to pop up across the country.
As Wal-Mart Watch reported late last year, Wal-Mart has exhibited a commitment in replacing older, less fit, or disabled employees with younger and cheaper help. Barbara Flory has decided to fight back against Wal-Mart policies, and she’s bringing her own stool with her.
- Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News: Greeter challenges Wal-Mart policy
- ZNet: A Brief History of Wal-Mart and Disability Discrimination
- Appellate Law & Practice: CA1: Walmart and the ADA
- CNNMoney.com: Wal-Mart hit with $7.5M jury verdict
- EEOC: Wal-Mart TV Ad Tells The Story
Posted by Corey Himrod | Permalink
From the Anchorage Daily News:
Anchorage resident Barbara Flory believes her paralysis and back problems shouldn’t prevent her from doing her job.
Flory, 66, has greeted Wal-Mart customers for nearly 13 years—the last six at Anchorage’s Old Seward Highway store.
But now she’s battling the company over her job. She’s filed a discrimination complaint against Wal-Mart with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
From KTUU-Anchorage, Alaska:
Flory was placed on leave because she asked local managers if she could sit on a stool for a couple of minutes each hour. She says a stroke she suffered 21 years ago paralyzed most of her left side, and doctors told her at the time she would not likely survive.
Twelve years ago she took a job as a greeter in an Ohio Wal-Mart and continued working when she came to Anchorage in 1999.
But recent back trouble requires that she sit down from time to time.
Flory says when she showed Wal-Mart managers a doctor’s note validating her medical condition, she was put on leave, and told she cannot come back to work until she does not need the stool.
So, Flory filed suit against the company.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, and I’ve been made to feel like I asked for something. And it’s not that special. I don’t like feeling like I was being really bad,” she said.
- Click here to learn more about Wal-Mart and discrimination.
Posted by Russ Fagaly | Permalink
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