Running Head: LABOR RELATIONS IN WAL-MART 1

Labor Relations in Wal-Mart

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Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................2

Problem 1- Refusing equal pay and promotions to female workers............................................3

Recommendations........................................................................................................................3

a. Offer same treatment to all workers..................................................................................3

b. Paying workers according to their ranks..............................................................................3

Benchmark................................................................................................................................4

Problem 2- Laying off employees with a short notice.................................................................4

Recommendations........................................................................................................................4

a. Give customers early notice before they are laid off.........................................................4

b. Transferring them to the other branches.............................................................................4

Benchmark................................................................................................................................5

Problem 3 Wage theft................................................................................................................5

Recommendations........................................................................................................................5

a. Avoid working after the business hours.............................................................................5

b. Implement a different strategy to generate more income..................................................6

Benchmark................................................................................................................................6

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6

References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction

Wal-Mart is an American multinational business that operates a chain of hypermarkets,

departmental stores, and grocery stores among others. The company was doing well in the first

years after establishment, but years later, it started experiencing problems related to labor

relations like any other business. The essay will identify three problems as well as offer

recommendations and benchmarks to those issues.

Problem 1- Refusing equal pay and promotions to female workers

One of the issues that relate to labor relations in Wal-Mart involves a case where the

company was sued by its female workers for refusing them equal pay and promotions (Derby,

2004). That violates the labor laws, as aspects of race, gender, or ethnicity should not determine

payment or promotion of employees in any company. That problem has discrimination elements

connected to it.

Recommendations

a. Offer same treatment to all workers

The proposal for the mentioned problem would be giving equal treatment to all

employees despite gender or race. That will reduce any aspect of discrimination which is

violating the labor laws since employers should not segregate any worker by gender, race or

ethnicity among other factors. The company should implement a policy that it will be referring to

when promoting its workers. That may include meeting a certain target depending on the level of

employee.
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b. Paying workers according to their ranks

The second recommendation for the same problem is paying based on the type of work

that each person does since that will not involve issues of gender or race. Again, employees will

not be underpaid which is a good idea to apply a policy that defines everyones duties and their

rank to minimize the issues of inequality and gender violence. The systems relied upon should

contain all the terms that should apply in case employees work past the working hours.

Benchmark

The benchmark that can be applied on this recommendation is opting for the e-commerce

operations that are applied by the Amazon which is an online shop (Cockery, 2017). The

customers select for their groceries online then the shoppers pick the items and deliver them to

the owners at the packing lot. That saves the business the employee cost and occupies a smaller

space while saving the customers time. Such a move will help Wal-Mart cut costs on rent and

employees thus better profits. From this platform, the business can select employees depending

on the skills required on the e-commerce operations and not gender.

Problem 2- Laying off employees with a short notice

The other issue that the same company is shared by Hiroko Tabuchi on 2015 where laid-

off workers sued the company. That incident happened after Wal-Mart closed five of its stores

rendering the workers jobless without notice. The business offered to rehire the workers once the

shops open or absorb them in the other branches. The laid-off employees argue that they were

given only a few hours notice and neither are they guaranteed to get their jobs back.
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Recommendations

a. Give customers early notice before they are laid off.

The recommendation that I will offer for the problem of abrupt retrenching of employees

is giving them early notice so that they may be prepared. That will also make them look for

alternative ways before they become jobless.

b. Transferring them to the other branches

The other recommendation is that Wal-Mart instead of laying off the workers, the

company can try to fix them in different branches of Wal-Mart. That will reduce the number of

those who will lose their jobs as well as avoid violating the labor laws through laying off

employees without enough notice. The proposal is beneficial since the company will not spend

extra costs in training new employees especially after the stored are restored and again, business

will not be affected after closing the stores.

Benchmark

The benchmark that Wal-Mart can apply is selling off the unprofitable business lines and

retains the profitable ones. This strategy was applied by Target Company in American after the

Chief executive Brian Cornell announced the decision of the company to close the Canada

branches that were operating at a loss (Austen & Tabuchi, 2015). That will assist in saving the

business more losses and through the bankruptcy protection, the company was safe from labor

law violations. Upon taking such a move, the Wal-Mart company will end up saving its business

from experiencing more losses.

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Problem 3 Wage theft

Aaron Ludensky addressed the third issue that Wal-Mart encountered in 2008 where the

author affirms that Walmart was accused by its employees for violating the labor law by refusing

to pay them overtime. The company fails to pay workers for the extra hours that they spend

cleaning the store and more allegations assert that delete some of their working hours. The

company fails to comply with most of the labor laws that protect the employees.

Recommendations

a. Avoid working after the business hours

After the allegation that Walmart is overworking its employees, it is recommendable to

avoid working the workers after the agreed time. That will address all the problems of unpaid

overtime thus solving the problem. Again, the firm should put clear policies about the working

hours and when employees should turn to the other duties. That encourages proper planning

which in return prevents overworking of the employees.

b. Implement a different strategy to generate more income

I recommend that instead of Wal-Mart saving costs through violations of labor laws, the

company should implement different strategies that will bring more profits. On the contrary, it

can choose to cut costs through other legal ways like reduction of unnecessary benefits on the

employees.

Benchmark

Wal-Mart can apply the benchmark of offering cheap prices and match prices advertised

by other retailers. An example of an organization that follows this trend is the German grocery
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chain Aldi that offers cheap prices (Clifford, 2011). That has seen it open more successful

branches in the United States despite being based in Germany. By applying that benchmark, Wal-

Mart will increase its sales thus more profit without working extra hours that may even cost the

company more through the wages paid for the overtime.

Conclusion

After analyzing on Wal-Mart Company it is evident that the business has encountered

various issues that threaten its success. These problems concern the employees and the

management like laying off employees without notice wage theft to safe costs, and gender

discrimination on payment. Several recommendations have been offered including adopting new

legal ways of making profits. The paper has proposed some benchmarks that are applied by other

companies with the aim of making profits.

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References

Austen I. & Tabuchi H. (2015) Target Red Ink Runs Out in Canada. The New York Times.

Clifford S. (2011). Where Wal-Mart Failed, Aldi Succeeds. The New York Times.

Cockery M. (2017). Walmart Puts Its Eggs in a Time-Saving Basket: Grocery Pickup. The
New York Times.

Derby M. (2004).Target Gains on Wal-Mart. EDM

Gustavoson C. (2015). Wal-Mart Knows it has Problems: How it Plans to Fix Them. CNBC.com

Ludensky A. (2008). Walmart Labor Problems. Voices

Mitchell Dan. (2015). Wal-Mart's Problems Go Beyond Underpaid Workers. Retail.

Tabuchi H. (2015). Laid-Off Walmart Workers Head to Labor Board. Business Day.

Trainer D. (2017). Target Looking Better Than Wal-Mart for Investors. Investing #Stockwatch#.