Synopsis
Wal-Mart is one of the world’s largest and wealthiest retail stores. Similar to CareNetWest, however, they face corporate compliance issues of all sorts. Some of these issues have been brought against the corporation as lawsuits. The majority of the cases have concerned labor conditions and wage and hour violations. Wal-Mart has reportedly been in violation of labor laws. Also, according to store associates, they are being paid unfairly below minimum wage without enough money to make a living and were also forced to work overtime. Wal-Mart, like CareNetWest was lacking the internal expertise necessary to mitigate its issues. Without the proper support teams on board to solve their issues, the structure of both companies is weak.
Over the years, and after hundreds of lawsuits filed mostly by its associates, Wal-Mart has implemented new policies and a ...view middle of the document...
org).
Wal-Mart has been accused of forcing associates to work off the clock, denying associates their lunch and rest breaks, having a heath care plan that only covers some of its employees, paying associates below minimum wage, poor treatment of factory workers, having an anti-union policy, violating child labor laws, and discrimination against women, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals.
Responded to the issues
Wal-Mart made drastic changes in order to address the legal issues it was facing. In 2004, it established a corporate compliance team to address U.S. wage and hour laws and lawsuits. Wal-Mart also created an Office of Diversity to implement programs concerning diversity and put an end to discrimination accusations. It adopted a new job classification system to consider pay and promotions. This would hopefully curb questions about gender discrimination. The corporate compliance team is assigned to handle the company’s obligations and duties to employees such as pay, working hours and break time. New cash registers were installed, which would cut off if an associate works beyond scheduled hours. Wal-Mart also increased hourly wages to almost ten dollars per hour. With the new corporate compliance and Office of Diversity team on board to repair the company internally, the vast amount of lawsuits should hopefully decrease or stop altogether.
Outcome
The company’s corporate compliance and Office of Diversity team have turned things around for them, and pulled their soggy reputation out of the water in the past three years. Because of this, Wal-Mart remains a leader in the retail industry.
References
Is Wal-Mart good for America Frontline? Retrieved on November 14, 2008, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/transform/employment.html.
Defending Human Rights Worldwide. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved on November 14, 2008, from:
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0507/5.htm#_Toc164069651.
The real facts about Wal-Mart. Wake up Wal-Mart. Retrieved on November 14, 2008, from:
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/.