Suit Says Wal-Mart Workers Forced To Toil Off The Clock

The New York Times ^ | June 25.'02 | Steven Greenhouse

[joesnuffy]

June 25, 2002

Suits Say Wal-Mart Forces Workers to Toil Off the Clock

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

ANSAS CITY, Mo.

[Seeking the truth]

Hey joesnuffy, thanks for posting but haven't you heard about the NYT & FR lawsuit settlement?

No full posting of articles! Exerpts only, first paragraph and then a link is OK.

[Admin Moderator]

The NYT is not on the list of publications we need to limit to excerpts only.

[X-USAF]

Los Angeles Times and Washington Post are the two not to post full articles from.

[William Terrell]

When a manager asks you to work after you clock out, then clock in again. Lack of moral courage is not cause for a lawsuit.

[Alberta's Child]

I worked for one of these big-box retailers when I was a college student, and for the first year or so some of the practices described here were fairly common (though I never remembered a case in which anyone had hours removed from their time card).

In defense of the company, it was under constant pressure to protect itslef from abuses by employees -- one of the things people would do is leave half an hour before their scheduled shift ended, and have someone else clock them out for their full shift. In another incident, an entire group of employees was prosecuted for stealing electronics (they would place them in the cardboard compacter after the last load had been crushed, then come back in the middle of the night and get them from the outside).

One very busy Saturday night the manager who was on duty had everyone stay an hour late to finish cleaning things up (again, we were all paid for the extra hour), and I found out later that he had locked the doors on us. He was fired within three days, and the general manager of the store was fired a few weeks later. The guy who replaced him was one of the best people I've ever worked for -- if he sensed that any of the employees had even a marginal understanding of how the retail business works, he would spend a lot of time talking to them, explaining how the company worked and why the company did things a certain way, etc.

[Seeking the truth]

You're right! I had just read JimRob's extended list of publications and started my first coffee (late night last night!) when I saw this article by JoeSnuffy.

I obviously need more coffee.

My problem is that I see all these damn leftist fishwraps as one and the same.

[Seeking the truth]

Joesnuffy, sorry for the error. (I still hate the NYT as much as ever!)

[Seeking the truth]

BTW, I am impressed with your reaction time there! That was faster than a 911 call!

[Corin Stormhands]

My wife works for Wal-Mart (and it's ending soon when she goes back to teaching). When she's worked "off the clock" her supervisor has corrected her hours in the system. My guess is this is individual managers and not company policy.

From what my wife sees (she works in the accounting/cash office), they have more of a problem getting employees to work when they're on the clock.

[No!]

"The NYT is not on the list of publications we need to limit to excerpts only."

But they're next!

[Wolfie]

Well, ya know, all that cheap Chinese slave labor merchandise, why not cheap American salve labor employees?

[genefromjersey]

Unfortunately, extremely common in "retail" !
Contract security people used to complain regularly about being forced to punch out, and then start locking up.The retailers usually got an extra half hour of free service that way, and would drop anybody who complained.

[balrog666]

When a manager asks you to work after you clock out, then clock in again. Lack of moral courage is not cause for a lawsuit.

All too simple to the victim-generation. Well said!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Its the Age of Clinton.

[William Terrell]

Lack of business ethics and breaking the law is not defensible regardless of the employees' perceived lack of "moral courage".

Well, the employees could remedy their complaint before getting to the court room, couldn't they. People let themselves be run over, then sue for big bucks? The proper way for a creature that walks on its hind legs is to clock back in, THEN, if fired, sue.

If an employee is directed to work late, and doesn't punch back in, it has to be presumed the employee intended to donate his work.

Life is tough for sheep, and should be; that's the motivation for growth out of sheepdom.

[Alberta's Child]

Lack of moral courage is not cause for a lawsuit.

That's a valid point, but fear of being unemployed will drive moral courage out of many people. The situation I described was bearable for me because I was a college student and viewed my "career" there as a temporary one anyway.

In fact, things got bad enough at the company that someone started a union drive. I ended up being one of the "spokesmen" for the employees, since I wasn't afraid to apeak my mind. As a reward, I started receiving calls from union reps who wanted me to sway people to vote in favor of the union.

Don't tell this to anyone in the union, but when I walked into that voting booth I submitted a blank ballot. For no other reason than my outlook on my job -- I felt I had no business casting a vote one way or another when I knew that I would not be employed there for more than a couple of years.

[CecilRhodesGhost]

I can't understand why American journalists are always trying to portray Wal-Mart in a negative light. First there was the "dead janitor" story about life-insurance policies legally taken on employees. Now this complaint that managers asked a few workers to go the extra mile. Can't a company do business in America anymore without whining op-ed pieces and newspaper hit-jobs? Corporations are not charities. They answer not to some moral guide but rather to the more realistic guide known as a balance sheet. Feelings, personal values, etc are all unimportant when compared to shareholder value. These labor-law hawks and pro-union nags need to get a life.