Wal-Mart's Excellent Adventure With The Department of Labor
Wal-Mart, the company which announced its preference to hire only healthy young people in a memo on cost cutting (scroll down to the post titled "Image and the Bottom Line"), is in the news again, this time over a sweetheart deal with the Department of Labor. The company, which closed a store in Canada rather than allow its employees to organize, recently got busted on violations of US child labor laws. How it fared with the government agency is detailed in a Washington Post article.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. received "significant concessions" from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division when the department and Wal-Mart signed a settlement agreement last year after the company was cited for child labor violations, according to a Department of Labor inspector general report released yesterday.
While the agreement did not violate laws, the inspector general's office found "serious breakdowns" in the department's "negotiating, developing and approving" such agreements.
The agreement between Wal-Mart and the Wage and Hour Division "was significantly different from other agreements," the report concluded. "Specifically, the Wal-Mart agreement had the most far-reaching restrictions on [the division's] authority to conduct investigations and assess [civil money penalties]."
Wal-Mart agreed in January to pay a federal fine of $135,540 for child labor violations in which 85 minors operated hazardous equipment at stores in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Arkansas. The investigations into violations occurred from October 1998 through April 2002. ...
Some lawmakers and child advocate groups called the agreement a sweetheart deal, particularly because it stated the company will receive 15 days' notice "of any audit or investigation at the stores covered by this agreement."
"The Bush Labor Department chose to do an unprecedented favor for Wal-Mart, despite the fact it is well known for violating labor laws, including child labor laws," Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the lawmaker who requested an investigation, said in a statement. He also said such an arrangement could allow the nation's largest employer to cover up evidence of a violation and would discourage employees who might fear retribution from filing a complaint. [Emphasis added]
Generally, successful negotiation involves each side giving up something in order to reach a deal. In this case, however, we learn that part of the Department of Labor deal was actually written by Wal-Mart's lawyers and meekly accepted by the government. That is tantamount to a plea agreement between a felon and the prosecuting attorney which essentially reads like this: "OK, I did something bad, but it wasn't so bad, and if I do it again, you promise to give me two weeks advance notice that you're coming after me so that I can run like hell for the border."
Outrageous.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. received "significant concessions" from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division when the department and Wal-Mart signed a settlement agreement last year after the company was cited for child labor violations, according to a Department of Labor inspector general report released yesterday.
While the agreement did not violate laws, the inspector general's office found "serious breakdowns" in the department's "negotiating, developing and approving" such agreements.
The agreement between Wal-Mart and the Wage and Hour Division "was significantly different from other agreements," the report concluded. "Specifically, the Wal-Mart agreement had the most far-reaching restrictions on [the division's] authority to conduct investigations and assess [civil money penalties]."
Wal-Mart agreed in January to pay a federal fine of $135,540 for child labor violations in which 85 minors operated hazardous equipment at stores in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Arkansas. The investigations into violations occurred from October 1998 through April 2002. ...
Some lawmakers and child advocate groups called the agreement a sweetheart deal, particularly because it stated the company will receive 15 days' notice "of any audit or investigation at the stores covered by this agreement."
"The Bush Labor Department chose to do an unprecedented favor for Wal-Mart, despite the fact it is well known for violating labor laws, including child labor laws," Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the lawmaker who requested an investigation, said in a statement. He also said such an arrangement could allow the nation's largest employer to cover up evidence of a violation and would discourage employees who might fear retribution from filing a complaint. [Emphasis added]
Generally, successful negotiation involves each side giving up something in order to reach a deal. In this case, however, we learn that part of the Department of Labor deal was actually written by Wal-Mart's lawyers and meekly accepted by the government. That is tantamount to a plea agreement between a felon and the prosecuting attorney which essentially reads like this: "OK, I did something bad, but it wasn't so bad, and if I do it again, you promise to give me two weeks advance notice that you're coming after me so that I can run like hell for the border."
Outrageous.
posted by Diane at 4:04 AM
2 Comments:
"The Bush Labor Department chose to do an unprecedented favor for Wal-Mart, despite the fact it is well known for violating labor laws, including child labor laws,"
Despite?
In the late 70's, while I was still living in my grandmother's house, I first heard of Wal-Mart's lies. Nanny,my grandmother, had ranted on for months when a series of commercials Wal-Mart ran proclaiming their products "Made in the USA" started running. I still remember the stickers they passed out. She new then it was all from China and the "made in the USA" label was all a lie...over thirty years ago.
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