Issues | Discrimination
As America’s largest company, Wal-Mart has a duty to treat all employees and suppliers with respect. However, this is not always the case. Wal-Mart is currently facing the largest workplace-bias lawsuit in U.S. history for widespread discrimination against women employees; a class action lawsuit filed by African-American truck drivers; and numerous other cases involving discrimination against workers with disabilities. For example, in 2001, Wal-Mart paid $6 million dollars to settle 13 lawsuits, which alleged widespread discrimination and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Discriminating Against Women
Wal-Mart faces the largest workplace bias suit in American history -- and that's just one of its issues:
-
Wal-Mart faces the nation's largest workplace gender-bias lawsuit. In June 2004, U.S. District Court Judge Martin Jenkins granted class-action status to 1.6 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees who charge the company with paying women less and offering them fewer opportunities for promotion. The class is comprised of all current and former female employees employed between December 26, 1998, and the present. [Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., No. C01-02252 MJJ (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California).]
 |
|
- Earning Less, Holding Fewer Senior Positions. In 2003, Dr. Richard Drogin, professor emeritus at California State University-Hayward, conducted a study on wages for female employees at Wal-Mart and found that:
- female hourly workers earn up to 37 cents less per hour than their male counterparts;
- female full-time employees working at least 45 weeks earn on average nearly $5,000 less than male employees in yearly salary;
- women make up 72 percent of Wal-Mart's total workforce, but only 33 percent of its managers;
- and women make up 92 percent of Wal-Mart's cashiers, but only 14 percent of Wal-Mart store managers.
[Wal-Mart Class, Plaintiff's Expert Dr. Richard Drogin's Statistical Report; New York Times, 12/30/04.]
- Ignoring Warnings to Improve Conditions for Women. According to a report by Bloomberg, "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. took no action on internal warnings seven years ago that it was falling short in promoting women, documents in a federal sex-discrimination lawsuit show. The world's largest retailer didn't carry out the 1998 recommendations of a diversity task force and disbanded the panel, according to company memos, reports and depositions filed in the case. Two years later, Wal-Mart had a reduced percentage of female managers." [Bloomberg News, 7/15/05.]
FEMALE WAL-MART EMPLOYEES SAY "NO" TO DISCRIMINATION
 |
|
Problems With the Minority Community
From courts of law to the court of public opinion, Wal-Mart's facing tough evidence on relations with minority communties:
- NAACP calls on Wal-Mart to become a more socially responsible company. The full text of the NAACP Resolution #14: "Oppose Wal-mart and Other Retailers Unfair Labor Practices Resolved: That the NAACP will challenge Wal-Mart and other retailers to overcome any of their practices that are inconsistent with the highest standards of Labor and Civil Rights, to ensure equal opportunity and equal pay for Women, people of color and other minorities, and work with local communities to effectively address Wal-Mart's and other retailers negative impact on issues like the environment and local businesses, and establish a 'Buy American' program that annually increases the percentage of 'Made in America' goods purchased by Wal-Mart and Other retailers to help protect American Jobs." [2008 NAACP Convention]
-
Wal-Mart faces class action lawsuit over truck driver discrimination. Nationally, 15% of truck drivers are African-American, yet at Wal-Mart African-Americans comprise only 4-6% of its fleet, which employs 10,000 truck drivers. In May of 2007, a district court judge ruled that Wal-Mart's hiring policies created a common group of potential plaintiffs (African -American truckers who were not hired or deterred from applying for Wal-Mart positions), thus approving the creation of a class action suit. Wal-Mart's latest attempts to avoid accountability include pushing the trial date back yet another year and denying plaintiffs' access to the results of a company-wide demographic survey of hiring practices. [Nelson v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., E.D. Ark., Nos. 2:04-CV-00171; walmartdriverclass.com]
- For Customers, Racial Profiling. Customers have sued Wal-Mart Stores, saying they were racially profiled while shopping at its stores. The lawsuit says at least 9 customers were followed, searched, humiliated, and in some cases, detained by employees. [Boston Globe, 7/13/05]
Inequality based on Sexual Orientation
Unlike its competitors, Wal-Mart does not support same-sex domestic partnership:
- Wal-Mart fails to provide domestic partner benefits.
Wal-Mart remains one of the few national retailers that do not extend
health care and other benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
Wal-Mart’s major competitors including Target, Best Buy, Costco,
Federated Department Stores (Macy’s), Walgreen’s and Sears Holding
Corporation (Sears/K-Mart) all offer domestic partnership benefits.
[Corporate Equality Index, 9/06]
Demeaning the Disabled
For the Americans with disabilities who work at Wal-Mart, hazards abound:
- Wal-Mart losses a public battle to recoup insurance losses from brain-damaged woman. Debbie Shank, the former Wal-Mart worker severely injured in a trucking accident in Missouri, gets to keep her insurance money after all. After week of intense media pressure and public outrage, Wal-Mart made the decision not to pursue over $450,000 dollars in insurance money despite winning a Supreme Court ruling. Wal-Mart policy reversal happened after Debbie Shank's story received heavy rotation on CNN and Keith Olbermann's Countdown. on MSNBC as a result Wal-Mart's lawsuit against her. [CNN, 3/25/08, MSNBC 3/27-3/31/08]
- Paying Millions Over Americans with Disabilities Act Violations. In 2001, Wal-Mart paid $6 million dollars to settle 13 lawsuits charging the firm with widespread discrimination and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even after these lawsuits, Wal-Mart continued to discriminate against Americans with Disabilities; in 2004, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against Wal-Mart on behalf of a Kansas City man confined to a wheelchair. [29 U.S.C. S 706 et seq; Business Journal, 1/20/04.]
- Wal-Mart discriminates against employees with Cerebral Palsy. In 2002, Wal-Mart hired then 21-year old Patrick Brady, an American living with cerebral palsy, as a sales associate in the pharmacy department. After one day in the pharmacy, however, the company reassigned him to other responsibilities -- including collecting garbage and shopping carts from the parking lot. A Long Island jury found that Wal-Mart discriminated against Brady when he was transferred and asked impermissible pre-employment questions about his disability. The jury awarded Brady $7.5 million in damages, including $5 million in punitive damages. On appeal a three-judge panel in New York upheld the decision in July 2008, holding Wal-Mart responsible for discrimination but lowering the award to the maximum statutory amount in damages, a total of $900,000. [Associated Press, 2/24/05; Newsday, 3/24/05; New York Law Journal, 6/23/05; Bloomberg, 7/2/08.]
What You Can Do
Ready for Wal-Mart to treat all Americans with dignity and respect?
- Join thousands in signing the Handshake with Sam agreement and calling on Wal-Mart to respect Americans' equality -- and America's laws
- Tell friends and family about Wal-Mart's treatment of women, minorities and the disabled -- and how that reflects on the company's spirit
- Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper about the impact of Wal-Mart's discrimination on your community
