Posted on 11/01/2006 6:57:04 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
Wal-Mart's attendance policy criticized
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer
35 minutes ago
NEW YORK - At Wal-Mart these days, snowy weather is no longer an excuse for lateness. It had better be a natural disaster like a hurricane or blizzard. And being 10 minutes or more tardy for work three times will earn you a demerit. Too many of those could get you fired.
It's all part of a revised attendance policy implemented earlier this fall that makes Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hourly workers more accountable for excessive unexcused absences and formalizes such penalties.
The new rules already are drawing fire from critics who claim they are the latest attempt by the nation's largest private employer to weed out unhealthy and costly long-term workers as it seeks to cut labor costs.
John Simley, spokesman for Wal-Mart, calls the charges by labor-backed groups "invalid" and said the changes are an enhancement of the company's prior policy.
"We are formalizing and enforcing the policy to ensure greater consistency and to minimize subjectivity," he said.
"It is designed to produce a better work environment and a better shopping environment. The result is better communication and a better shopping experience," he said.
Documents furnished to The Associated Press by union-backed WakeUpWalmart.com show that employees must call an 800 number to report all absences and tardiness by an hour before the scheduled start time. They also have to call their manager with the confirmation code they received when calling the hot line number. In the past, employees got permission directly from their store managers.
"After a year of adopting antifamily policy after antifamily policy, Wal-Mart adds further insult to injury by adopting a new restrictive attendance policy that treats hard-working associates like children while penalizing them if, God forbid, they face a child or friend with a medical emergency," said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman at WakeUpWalmart.com.
The group is set to hold its first-ever national conference call with Wal-Mart employees and civil rights leaders Thursday to discuss the latest move as well as other recent labor changes.
In September, Wal-Mart said it will stop offering traditional low-deductible health plans for new hires next year in favor of low-premium plans with higher deductibles. Wal-Mart has maintained that the move will put more health care money and choices in the hands of its more than 1.3 million U.S. workers, but union-backed Wal-Mart critics claim it is pushing the rising costs of health care onto its workers.
Wal-Mart has also received heat from critics for implementing caps on its seven hourly pay grades. Employees who are at or above the cap will not have their pay cut, but they can only get a raise by moving to a higher-paid category.
Wal-Mart isn't the only major corporation grappling with how to cut down on no-shows; unscheduled absenteeism has climbed to its highest level since 1999, according to results released last week of an annual nationwide survey of 326 human resource executives in U.S. companies and organizations.
The survey, conducted for CCH Inc. by the Harris Interactive consulting firm, put the U.S. absenteeism rate at 2.5 percent in 2006, up from 2.3 percent a year ago and the highest since seven years ago when it was 2.7 percent. The survey found that personal illness makes up for only 35 percent of unscheduled absences, with the rest due to family issues, personal needs, stress and an entitlement mentality.
But Pamela Wolf, a workplace analyst at CCH, believes that Wal-Mart's absentee control program seems to be bucking the trend among major corporations to embrace work-life programs that are "designed to recruit and retain workers."
"This doesn't seem to be introducing flexibility to its employees," Wolf said, after being briefed on Wal-Mart's new policy.
Dan Butler, vice president of operations at the National Retail Federation, defended stricter attendance policies like Wal-Mart's, saying "if you don't have controls in place to hold employees accountable, you can't guarantee a certain level of service."
But some Wal-Mart employees, whose names were furnished by WakeUpWal-Mart.com, said in interviews that the new policy is too rigid.
The new policy reduces the number of unapproved absences allowed to three from the previous four during a rolling six-month period. Employees who have more than three unapproved absences will be disciplined; seven will result in termination, according to the documents. Simley said under the old policy, employees were terminated after six unapproved absences.
The new policy appears more rigid when it comes to authorized absences. In the past, general bad weather would suffice as an authorized excuse; now it has to be a natural disaster like a hurricane or blizzard. Wal-Mart is now defining tardiness more rigidly as beginning work 10 minutes or more after the scheduled start time, which results in an incomplete shift. Three incomplete shifts add up to one unauthorized absence.
Simley argued that the new policy is more flexible. Before, employees could have been marked down as tardy for being a just few minutes late for work, he said.
Under the revised policy, Wal-Mart is encouraging employees who are sick for more than three days to apply for unpaid leave of absence under the Family Medical Leave Act.
"They always said family comes first; now, are they coming last?" asked Cynthia Murray,a Hyattsville, Md., resident, who works in the fitting room of a Wal-Mart store in Laurel, Md.
One of the changes that Murray is upset about is that Wal-Mart now counts leaving work early to pick up a sick child as a strike against you. Simley argued that Wal-Mart always counted that as an unauthorized absence.
Mike Turner, who resigned three weeks ago as assistant manager of a Wal-Mart store in Crosby, Tex., said he was briefed about the changes by his bosses earlier this fall. He said that under the old policy, managers would approve excuses on a case-by-case basis, but the 800 number eliminates such "human interaction."
"I believe in being fair," he said, noting he personally approved plenty of situations that made a worker late like flooding or a car breaking down. "What can you tell a good associate that you are going to discipline because of a system that goes against human interaction?" he asked.
Finally, we can visit a Walmart that doesn't sell the exact same stuff Target, K-Mart, Fred Meyers, Meijers and every other chain does!
I'm excited...
In a previous life I was a employment counselor. Found a young man a job, then saw him several days later in my office, so I asked him what happened? He replied: "those people at XYZ Company tried to tell me what to do!"
I had to have an informal pre motion conference in Federal court in Bridgeport, about 1 hour from my office. It was blizzard conditions and the radio was announcing closings, including Federal Courts. All except this Judge and when I walked in 10 minutes late trying to explain about the weather conditions and traffic all he said was didn't I listen to the weather report the night before and make the appropriate preparations. He said sanctions would follow the next time either counsel was late, for any reason, and this was an informal chambers conference.
Don't go quiet on me now. I have Map-N-Go all ready to lay out my route. You don't know how long I've been waiting for this. I was beginning to think the Chinese Walmarts were by invitation only.
Funny, I bought two flags after 9/11 from a mom and pop store down the street from my house. Both manufactured by an American company that guarantees that.....oops, wrong thread for that (not a borders thread).
Then again, as far as national chains, I get better service at local chains, not only that you can find more American manufactured products at them for rougly the same price as Wal-Mart's junk. Funny how that works out.
I really have no idea how many Wal-Mart's I've been in, but one can be assumed to much like the other. I look at the tags when I happen to be in one. 90% of the non-perishable goods, clothing, electronics, ceiling fans ets. are made in China.
Requiring workers to be punctual is not "a government policy."
So please share with me the location of one of these 90% Chinese merchandise Walmarts! That isn't a very difficult question to answer.
Nothing like a judge who thinks he's Almighty God, eh?
As nearly as I can tell? Any of them. I've never been to Seattle, but I'm guessing it must be about a ten minute ride.
You claim they sell 90% Chinese merchandise and you can't be more specific then, "I've never been to Seattle, but..."
Could you be a little more specific, such as the Walmart in Renton, WA, or the Walmart in Kent, WA or the Walmart in Covington, WA?
I'll be near Bentonville this weekend! Think I'll stop into the old Walton 5&10 for some sightseeing.
If enough people do that, Wal-Mart will either change or perish.
I don't see them perishing.
I'm not too sure where I'll be this weekend. Once I find out where this Chinese Walmart is the wife and I are hitting the road. I have been waiting eight years to visit one of them, I'm not going to pass up this chance.
I was just thankful that it was a simple ex-parte motion and that there wasn't any drop dead statute that expired on that day or I would have had to explain my tardiness to my malpractice carrier.
I always make sure I arrive at such events at least 1/2 hour early.
I did get stuck in traffic on my way to Oral Arguments on an appeal once and I arrived about 6 minutes late. Normally (since there are usually several cases on calender each day -- and the criminal cases go first) I figured that it would not be a big deal, but it just so happened that my case was the first one called.
< When I arrived at the courthouse I couldn't find the elevator right away so I ended up running up three flights of stairs and the moment I walked into the back of the courthouse they called my case. I was completely out of breath and my heartrate was somewhere in the low hundreds.
Since I was the moving party I had to go first. I was simply too out of breath to make my prepared speech and after about 30 seconds of pretending to be cool and trying my hardest to sound lawyerly, one of the Justices interrupted me and started asking questions. That gave me just enough time to compose myself. Interestingly almost right away the justice asked me a question about a position that I was arguing against. I said, "well, I think that is something you would need to ask the respondent." At that point the justice said, "Perhaps we should," and they immediately allowed me to step down and they called him. After that, they gave my opponent a thorough dressing down and pelted him with questions he was obviously not prepared to answer. Then when they were done with him, they asked me if I had anything else to add. My response was, "No your honor, nothing." I dodged a bullet on that one.
Now when I have an oral argument on an appeal, I make sure I arrive at least an hour and half early.
It was the same in PA, Wal-Mart was the only place carrying stocks of American Flags.
Another biggie for me was the emergency call for supplies from the rescuers at Ground Zero in the days following 9/11. They badly needed boots, gloves, flashlights, batteries, bottled water, energy bars, etc. Wal-Mart was giving everyone a discount who came in buying stuff to donate to the searchers at the Trade Center rubble.
Renton?
"Nothing like a judge who thinks he's Almighty God, eh?"
Are you telling me they aren't?
During the Ross fiasco here in Connecticut, the Federal Judge hearing just motions, not the case, called the defense counsel on a Sunday night and threatened him with sanctions and disbarment if he did not file a motion for psychiatric review even though Ross had already been interviewed and stated he didn't want any furhter delay in his execution. The judge was later found to have filed motions and brief opposing the Connecticut death penalty which he did not disclose to counsel. He did not think there was any need to disclose since he was obviously not biased; he was the Judge.
Unions are designed to be managed by such people.
Look, if I wanted somebody to take a huge chunk of my salary without doing any work, I would have gotten married.
At least with a union, you get screwed every payday.
I've never been able to figure out what fuels this downright hatred of Walmart?
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