I’ve never been a fan of Wal-Mart. Besides the unpleasant atmosphere and the unsavory clientele, I haven’t wanted to shop there since I read Barbara’s Ehrenreich’s excellent and heart-breaking account of working at Wal-Mart in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America. It’s no secret that Wal-Mart keeps prices low by paying its employees poverty-level wages and by insuring barely over half its employees on their company health plan. In fact, many Wal-Mart workers are poor enough to qualify for public health assistance. Twenty-five states have tracked and reported the number of employees and dependants that the largest employers within their borders have enrolled in state-funded health care programs, and in those states, Wal-Mart is at the head of the line for public assistance. As if all this weren’t bad enough, I now have a new reason to not shop at Wal-Mart:
As the New York Times recently reported, “At Wal-Mart, when employees miss one or more days because of illness or other reasons, they generally get a demerit point. Once employees obtain four points over a six-month period, they begin receiving warnings that can lead to dismissal.” This policy encourages employees to go to work when they are sick, endangering their own health and the health of their customers. Public health experts agree that people should stay home when they are sick to stop the spread of contagious diseases, especially now when there are concerns about a possible H1N1 flu pandemic.
MomsRising.org has started a campaign to Give Wal-Mart a Demerit Badge. Whether you shop at Wal-Mart or not, please take a moment to click on the link and send them a message about their unfair and unsafe demerit policy. Their employees and their customers really do deserve better.
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