Wal-Mart audit finds labor violations
Find a Conversation
| Tue, 01-13-2004 - 3:27pm |
If it's not a problem, then why keep the audit results sealed???
Wal-Mart audit finds labor violations
Company downplays findings
07:27 AM PST on Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Associated Press NEW YORK - An internal audit of about 25,000 workers at Wal-Mart Stores found thousands of labor violations, including minors working during school hours and workers not taking breaks or lunches, a newspaper reported. The audit found 1,371 violations of child-labor laws, including minors working too late, too many hours in a day or during school hours. On more than 60,000 occasions, workers missed breaks and on 16,000 they skipped meal times, in violation of most state labor regulations. The audit, conducted in July 2000 and distributed to top Wal-Mart executives, polled employee records at 128 stores across the country, the New York Times reported in Tuesday editions.
The audit, by Wal-Mart auditor Bret Shipley, "doesn't reflect actual behavior within the facilities," Mona Williams, Wal-Mart's vice president for communications, told the paper. The company had enacted no reforms in response to the report, she said, because other Wal-Mart auditors had reviewed Shipley's work and found it flawed.
But Wal-Mart critics said the audit revealed the company had sacrificed workers' rights in pursuit of profit.
"Their own analysis confirms that they have a pattern and practice of making their employees work through their breaks and lunch on a regular basis," James Finberg, a lawyer who has worked on several lawsuits against the company, told the Times. "What this audit shows is against their own company policy and against the law in almost every state in which they operate." More than 40 lawsuits have accused the company of forcing employees to skip breaks and lunches, according to the Times. Wal-Mart has successfully petitioned courts to keep the audit sealed.
Wal-Mart employs 1.2 million people at 3,500 stores in the United States.
Online at: http://www.king5.com/business/stories/NW_011304BUBwalmart_laborviolationsJM.fe95fc3.html
cl-nwtreehugger
Co-cl: In The News http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=iv-elinthenews&nav=start
Community Leader - Sports Talk http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=iv-elsportstalk&nav=start


This must be a Jason Blair story ;-)
>"This must be a Jason Blair story ;-) "<
He's probably working in Walmart now.
You see, The New York Times reporter, Steven Greenhouse (not Jason Blair...ha ha...he was fired you know) didn't wait for the largest retailer in the world to personally send him paperwork exposing their many violations. He went out and talked to people, asked questions, gathered facts...you know...reporting. If you read the NY Times article it would tell you that :
a) the audit is "now under court seal" which means it was not always under court seal, and
b) "The audit was conducted in July 2000; a copy was given to The New York Times by a longtime Wal-Mart critic hoping to pressure the company to improve working conditions. Wal-Mart has asked various courts to seal the audit for the last two years - and they have complied - ever since the company gave copies to lawyers who accused it of making employees work off the clock."
One of the marks of good journalism is that it always answers questions about how it has access to information it reports on.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/13/business/13WALM.html
**edited to add - cl-libraone - sorry to post the same info you did...I didn't see yours until after I had already hit post. We seem to be on some kind of tandem posting vibe this week. Maybe because we're both libras? ; )
Edited 1/13/2004 5:27:25 PM ET by metrochick