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(6) At the company's Nampa, Idaho supercenter, a worker was fired for having Swine Flu. At first she worked sick, then wasn't able to several days and wasn't paid. Feeling a little better, she came in, but by early evening was so ill she was taken to an emergency room, couldn't work for two days, and was docked more pay plus demerits.
She already had three for taking time off to care for her sick mother and contracting the flu. Disciplinary action follows after six. It's called "Decision Day," or "D-Day" on which employees must write an essay on why they like working at Wal-Mart, why they should keep their job, and how they'll improve their future performance. Based on their comments, they're either retained or fired, but if kept, they're placed on probation for a full year during which firing follows the slightest infraction.
Nampa supercenter employees call it "cleaning out," when workers are fired for any reason - minor infractions, slow traffic, firing full-time staff for cheap part-time ones or temps.
One worker was fired for accumulating flu-related demerits. On November 6, 2009, a Wal-Mart spokesperson told ABC's Good Morning America:
"Wal-Mart will not fire any worker for having Swine Flu."
Workers tell a different story. So does Global Exchange.org, saying the company leads "the race to the bottom" by its unfair labor practices:
-- half of their employees get no health insurance, and those with it pay a large percentage of the cost and receive too little; and
-- the company has a long, disturbing record of worker abuse, including forced overtime, some off-the-clock, illegal child and undocumented worker labor, and relentless union-busting; as a result, Wal-Mart faces numerous suits over unpaid overtime, denial of meal and rest breaks, manipulating time and wage records to cut costs, employing minors during school hours, and the largest ever class action discrimination lawsuit, involving over 1.5 million present and former female employees, paid less and promoted less often than their male counterparts.
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