HR Topic: Employment Laws and Wal-Mart
Employment laws are essential standards under which the employers engage employees. This means that standards are set by the country’s governing authority, which set precedence for action by the employers. These are the employment laws which govern the country, and they vary from one country to another depending on a country’s economic standards. For example, the USA might have employment laws that are distinct from Germany. However, certain basics of employment laws remain constant across divides. Some of these issues include non-discrimination to employees, reduced salary, and remuneration to the employees, as well as harsh working conditions (Ford, 2011). Meanwhile, the limits might vary, but the rationale for these laws remain the same. Wal-Mart is an international retail outlet that is embroiled in employment laws tussle. This war has triggered accusations and counteraccusations, with over 15 cases of employment laws being discussed in the courts daily, about this giant retailer. A case study is about Wal-Mart branch in Minnesota that was accused of arbitrarily ripping off employees without awarding pay for the additional hours worked. The company was found culpable for this crime more than 2 million times. This is a gross violation of the Minnesota’s employment laws, which stipulates that every worker shall be paid or compensated according to the number of hours worked. Failure by Wal-mart to compensate its employees has generated spiral effects to other branches that have complained about poor pay, but with significantly longer working hours. Lower pay culminates to no bonuses for the extra hours worked, and the company is also rampant in the habit of ignoring the plight of growing economy, and fails to respond to the changes in the living standards (Hart, 2006). These are the key Human Resource issues that Wal-Mart has been associated with, and despite its exclusive global performance, the giant retail company still face similar counts of charges from its esteemed employees, who directly contribute to this success.
Organizational Profile at Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart began 50 years ago with the motivation of selling more for less. This has been the direct anchor and pillar to which this company has become a world leader in retail sales. Today, this giant retail outlet deals with wholesale to consumer products. The company operates in over 28 countries worldwide and has an employee-base of over 2.2 million employees. The company has met its Corporate Social Responsibly by creating an avalanche of employment opportunities all over the world. Also, Wal-Mart has a wide range of programs covering the needy and disadvantaged in the society. This company has an e-commerce platform that aids in its sales volume. In the 2016 fiscal year, the company made revenue totaling to $482 billion, and over $10 in net profit. The profitability of this company has been attributed to its prompt service delivery to the customers, who have since been accustomed to its services. The company’s managerial strategies are based on diligence and first-class services. Besides, Wal-Mart has a wide range of business categories in its 26 countries of operations, and these segments come in the form of retail outlets, wholesales, supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, among other formats.
Section 3: Sources
Ford, R. T. (2011). Beyond Good and Evil in Civil Rights Law: The Case of Wal-Mart v. Dukes. Berkeley Journal Of Employment & Labor Law, 32(2), 513-529.
This article is entrenched in the U.S civil rights law. The article gives a discussion of the U. S Supreme Court case against Wal-Mart. The Company was accused of discrimination and moral culpability. I will use this reference as evidence to Wal-Mart’s poor administration of employment laws to its employees.
Hart, M. (2006). Learning from Wal-Mart. Employee Rights & Employment .Policy Journal, 10(2), 355-394.
This article discusses about the case involving the Dukes against Wal-Mart, where the Dukes accused the company of gender inequalities in its employment standards. Based on this case, the Duke’s Plaintiff had accused the company of paying lesser salary to women than their male peers. I intend to use this article to assert my earlier statement that Wal-Mart is accustomed to the breach of employment laws in its operations.
