From stealing people’s wages to locking their employees up at night, here are 10 things
Walmart doesn’t want you to know.
10.)
Walmart is as Rich as a Country If Walmart were a country it would be in the
list of the top 30 richest countries in the world!
In fact, in the past few years, Walmart would have been on the list as numbers 28 and 25.
It is said that Walmart could actually destroy several countries around the world.
The financial capability of Walmart would be right up there on the list with countries
like Turkey, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
In 2012 Walmart basked in a shocking $444 billion in sales.
This is $20 billion more than Australia’s yearly Gross Domestic Product.
Walmart makes about $1.8 million in sales every single hour, which is more than most
people earn in a lifetime.
9.)
Sales Aren’t Always Sales Walmart is great for finding some good deals,
and as they always advertise, they always have low prices.
Many locations will also price match!
However, Walmart tends to lie about many of their sales prices.
Research has shown that many times Walmart actually sells things at the recommended retail
price.
But to trick people into believing it is a sale, they put a sale sticker around the item
with the regular price.
This trick makes you think you are getting something on sale but in reality customers
are not saving any money by buying the item at Walmart.
However, it is not just Walmart that plays into this trick.
Many major retail chains do this and you just have to be an educated consumer and not fall
into their trap!!!
The other day I saw a product on sale and it was a 2 cent price drop.
8.)
Low Wages Walmart is known for paying some of the lowest
wages in the US, sometimes even under minimum wage.
Walmart uses every trick in the book to keep costs low, and they are professionals.
Allegedly they have assisted illegal immigrants in crossing the border and only allow legal
employees to work 32 hours per week so they can't receive full-time employee benefits.
How they help people cross the border I have no idea.
Does Walmart have Coyotes?
Or pay off border patrol?
Or build tunnels?
They may be involved in all kinds of shenanigans we don’t know about.
The more you learn about the extensive reach of corporations, the scarier everything gets.
Walmart is also known to intentionally only pay workers minimum wage so the employees
have to take advantage of government assistance programs.
Therefore, Walmart saves money on both their employees' salaries and does not have to provide
them with any benefits.
In a report published by the House Committee of Education and Welfare, they estimated that
if a Walmart had around 200 employees, they would use $420,750 of federal taxpayers money
per year, or over $2 thousand per employee!
Walmart obviously has more than enough money to properly pay their employees but choose
not to and use the system to their advantage.
On top of this, there have also been lawsuits against Walmart that stated they did not pay
low wages to employees at all.
As of December 2002, 39 class action lawsuits in 30 states were filed against the corporation
claiming tens of millions of dollars in back pay owed to hundreds of thousands of employees.
These lawsuits included instances of Walmart forcing employees to work through breaks,
forcing employees to work off the clock, and even deleting hours from employees’ time
sheets without their knowledge.
7.)
Illegally Firing Workers If you do a google search on Walmart firing
their workers illegally, you will run into a lot of articles talking about their lawsuits.
Walmart employees are often fired for protesting or speaking up about their low wages.
In 2014, Walmart fired about 19 employees who were protesting for better working conditions.
No protesting allowed!!
There have also been other cases, such as in 2013 when Walmart employees protested for
organization.
Workers then backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) planned to bus into
Bentonville, Arkansas, to crash the company’s 2013 shareholder meeting.
Walmart’s corporate office got wind of the “Ride for Respect” plan and flew into
action by monitoring activists’ social media activity with the help of Lockheed Martin
to stay a step ahead of the protesters.
In total, Walmart fired about 100 employees who were going to take advantage of the “Ride
for Respect” plan.
Walmart stated that employees who planned to miss work in order to protest was grounds
for firing.
However, a judge did not agree and a couple of years later the judge ordered Walmart to
give the employees their jobs back, stating that firing them was illegal.
6.)
Child Labor In order to help keep their prices low, Walmart
is known to get most of their clothing overseas, which people (mainly women and children) make
in factories in horrible conditions and for extremely low wages.
Workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Indonesia who make clothes for Walmart face
"intensive labor exploitation and abuse," according to a report released by the Asia
Floor Wage Alliance, an international coalition of trade unions and human rights organizations.
The Asia Floor Wage Alliance says its report "identifies persistent rights violations"
against Walmart’s supply chain for workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Indonesia.
The report is based on interviews with 344 workers at 80 Walmart supplier factories.
It says that many of the workers, particularly in Cambodia and India, complained of sexual
harassment.
In 2005, Walmart actually settled a case dealing with child labor laws.
In the end, Walmart ended up paying $135,540 to settle 24 violations, which occurred at
stores in Arkansas, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
These charges had to do with teenage workers who used hazardous equipment such as chain
saws, paper balers and forklifts.
Have you guys seen The Office??
Remember the baler is suuuuper dangerous!
You shouldn’t go near that thing!
Child labor laws prohibit anyone under 18 from operating hazardous equipment.
5.)
Locking Employees Inside You heard that right.
Employees who were hired to work overnight were locked inside of Walmart stores to ensure
workers stayed the entire night and didn’t try to get out of their shift.
The New York Times reported on how this policy affected workers and gave examples like an
Indiana man who was working overnight, and he had a heart attack.
He couldn’t leave to get medical help.
Another example was when a hurricane hit Florida, and workers were trapped inside.
Scary movie waiting to happen.
Another story comes from a man who said his ankle was crushed and he had no idea how he
was going to get to the hospital.
As usual, there was no manager with a key to let the injured man out.
Nobody could use the fire exit either because management had drummed into the overnight
workers that if they ever used that exit for anything but a fire, they would lose their
jobs.
Walmart's vice president for communications at the time said the company used lock-ins
to protect stores and employees in high-crime areas.
It wasn’t meant to keep the workers in!
Whatever were people thinking?
It was meant to keep the bad people out!!
She said Walmart locked in associates at 10 percent of its stores, a percentage that has
declined as Walmart has opened more 24-hour stores.
4.)
Discrimination Against Women According to the National Organization of
Women, females made up the majority of Walmart workers in 2013, about 57 percent.
Nevertheless, female workers are often underpaid, underrepresented, and given little opportunity
for advancement.
Although women make up the majority of Walmart employees, most of them occupy low-wage positions
and few are in management roles.
In 2010, most Walmart managers were men.
In 2001, female workers earned $5,200 less per year on average than male workers.
The company paid those who had hourly jobs, where the average yearly earnings were $18,000,
$1.16 less per hour ($1,100 less per year) than men in the same position.
Female employees who held salaried positions with average yearly earnings of $50,000 were
paid $14,500 less per year than men in the same position.
Women have fought back, but to little avail.
Dukes vs. Walmart is the largest class action gender discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history.
1.5 million women accused Walmart of discrimination.
In 2011, the U.S. Supreme court issued a 5-4 decision in favor of Walmart, claiming: “Even
if every single one of these accounts is true, that would not demonstrate that the entire
company operate[s] under a general policy of discrimination.”
There have also been many cases of sexual harassment and Walmart has paid millions over
the years to settle and keep the victims quiet.
By the way, have you heard the latest that Walmart is now locking up African-American
beauty products?
They are now being sued for racial discrimination!
And now for number 3 but first if you are new here, be sure to subscribe!!
3.)
Stealing Wages It is well known that Walmart makes employees
work through breaks, and overtime is very common in the store.
This was brought to national attention when workers began to sue Walmart for their unpaid
wages.
Apparently, Walmart was making their employees work overtime and over their breaks without
paying them extra for the work.
In 2002, several employees came forward, claiming Walmart had forced them to work through unpaid
breaks and meal breaks, as well as overtime hours without an increased pay rate.
A class action lawsuit was filed and in 2014, Walmart was forced to pay out $151 million
to employees as well as $33.8 million in attorney's fees.
Another lawsuit was filed in California when Walmart intentionally failed to pay hundreds
of truck drivers the minimum wage.
The minimum wage was specifically for responsibilities like inspecting and washing their trucks.
In the end, a federal jury awarded the truck drivers with more than $54 million in damages.
2.)
Breaking Laws Walmart is pretty clever when it comes to
paying their workers as little as possible.
Even though the Walmart family is one of the richest in the world, they often hire immigrants
so they can pay them less, not for philanthropic reasons.
Not only do they hire people who will work for low wages (or have no other choice), they
also often break immigration laws and regulations.
On October 23, 2003, federal agents raided 61 stores in 21 states which led to the arrest
of 250 janitors who were undocumented workers.
Similar raids in 1998 and 2001 led to the arrest of an additional 102 undocumented Walmart
employees.
In addition, the 2003 raid led to a grand jury being convened to consider federal labor
racketeering charges against Walmart executives.
These charges were strengthened by wiretapped conversations between Walmart executives and
labor contractors that proved Walmart knew its employees were undocumented immigrants.
In the end, Walmart agreed to pay about 11 million dollars in order to escape any criminal
charges.
The victims did not receive compensation.
1.)
Discrimination Against the Disabled There are several lawsuits that show the giant
retailer has consistently discriminated against disabled workers.
While Walmart claims to have a friendly policy of hiring employees regardless of disability,
the lawsuits claim that they will often change the worker’s schedule.
When you are the largest employer in America, there are bound to be problems.
When the worker can’t accommodate the schedule because of their disability, Walmart then
has cause to fire the employee.
This is in direct violation with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The government then steps in and asks Walmart to simply change the hours to accommodate
the individual.
When Walmart refuses, this is when the lawsuits begin.
An example of one of Walmart’s most recent lawsuits, involved a woman who worked with
them for 15 years, but could not handle her new schedule change due to her disability.
Of course, they felt no remorse, and she was gone.
Walmart has been the defendant in a number of lawsuits alleging this kind of discrimination
and in 2001 alone it was required to pay $6 million to settle 13 of them.
This is actually just peanuts for them, but still.
These lawsuits were not brought by individuals, but by the Federal Government through the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
These settlements also required that Walmart change its hiring practices and provide more
training for employees in anti-discrimination laws.
On January 20, 2004, Walmart was in court again for refusing to hire a man in Kansas
City because he required a wheelchair.
Nothing has changed because most recently in 2017, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission is alleging that they violated the ADA by firing a longtime employee with
Down syndrome.
Thanks for watching!
Any personal Walmart experiences you would like to share?
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