Assessment of Wal-Mart Employment Practices
Introduction
Wal-Mart remains to be one the largest employer in the United States for having over two million employees. This is in accordance to the statistics of the Company. It is considered a success since it supplies services and products at low prices hence satisfying the needs of many clients. However, critics assert that Wal-Mart’s success is related to its employment practices towards employees. Wal-Mart applies employment practices such as deprived working conditions, poor wages, and insufficient health care towards its employees thereby making extra earnings at their expenditure and salary. This paper precisely evaluates Wal-Mart’s employment practices and the way forward towards improving the practices.
Though successful in the global market, Wal-Mart has encountered a violent flow of court cases and concerns based on its workforce. The major concerns entail working conditions that are poor, low wages for the employees, insufficient physical condition care, and also its tough rules on anti-union plans. The above employment practices which the company applies to its employees have resulted in lodging complaints by the workers thereby making the company face several court cases (Charles 2006, p. 43). The company’s current income rate is therefore seen as a proof of the discontented employees in addition to other factors. The employment practices of Wal-mart are therefore discussed in details as below. First and foremost, the practices entail the issue of wages to the employees.
Wal-Mart gives wages which are low to its employees and in addition to this, it forcefully seeks to maintain the wages down no matter the lawsuits which the Company faces throughout. The Company claims that its wages are normally in line with the in progress local market in sell toil. This been the case, Wal-Mart provides work for part-time personnel and its administration and mechanization offers chances to employees with very little or no skills hence this serves as a good explanation for the differences in wage (Chris 2007, p.24). Through employing immigrants to work in the stores and children who don’t understand their rights greatly contributes highly to the payment of low wages. Following such instances, the existing workers who don’t withstand the little amounts offered are quickly replaced with immediate effect (Eric 2005, p.6).
The Company further awards full-time reimbursement to the personnel working for thirty-four hours on weekly basis. The amount given for this period of time yearly has been considered less than the standard retail employee thus does not satisfy the needs of families. It does not only restrict the above mentioned hours only, but it directs cost of labor through discouraging extra time and by the application of off the timer employment (Reynolds 2004, p.57). Since Wal-Mart concentrates mostly on part-time and comparatively low paid employees, a number of its workforce may incompletely meet the requirements for state wellbeing programs. This issue has been criticized on the fact that the Company enlarges the load on taxpayer’s financial operations.
The Company’s working policies are intended to keep the wages down too. Alleged charges clearly explain that the older workers are forced to search for cheap and young workers who can be mistreated at the benefit of the Company. The low wages of the Company stands to be a risk to the living standards of its workers while at the same time damaging the economy for other. In addition to wages, Wal-Mart has been severally accused of its poor working conditions of its workers (Spangler & Parks, 2008, p.14). In one instance, a court case criticizes the Company for forcing over two hundred thousand personnel to work at off clock hours, and later denying them the pay for overtime in addition to disallowing them to break for lunch. The increased poor working conditions in the company are on the rise since the company doesn’t generate new machinery that can advance the superiority of life.
This means that the personnel has to work at off clock hours without compensation which actually is not fair. The company has to be charged with moral tribulations (Braunstein & Jantzen 2008, p.31). For instance, sexual inequity has been on rising especially in the working area. This has happened mostly to the women in their training and pay, assignment of a job, and in promotions. Health care is another employment practice in Wal-Mart which has a connection with low prices that the workers are paid. Due to the low wages which employees earn, two-thirds of them are always unable to have enough money to contribute to Wal-Mart insurance plan of health (Hemphill 2008, p.26). For instance, in two thousand and five, the health insurance plan covered approximately forty-four percent of its million employees in the United States.
Wal-Mart has been condemned following its policies which are ever adjacent to labor unions. Reviewers blame the employees’ unwillingness to connect the Wal-Mart’s labor union plans like the close watch of decision-making. The company affirms that it’s not opposed to the union but, disputes that its workers do not necessary require paying third parties to converse tribulations with the administration since its open door guiding principle permits workers to lodge grievances (Yasemin 2004, p.56). This is opposite of Sam Walton who is the founder of the company. He acknowledged that the company doesn’t require unions since the joint venture which exists for sharing benefits and motivation bonuses is enough to bring together work than any other strategy in the company (Chandler & Werther 2010, p. 81).
In recent times, Wal-Mart has been portraying communal awareness to its hard work to develop its employment practices. The company has aired a progression of profit-making from corner to corner that demonstrates life-saving health profits for employees (Brunn 2006, p.64). In addition, Wal-Mart has further created a commercial fulfillment squad to keep an eye on the company’s requirements to acquaintances in terms of operational hours, reimburse, time for breaks, and has tactics to inaugurate advanced money records that will lock off if a member of staff is working further than his programmed time.
Conclusion
Wal-Mart stands to be a literary representation, trade and industry power that declares free sell greediness. This is because it damages other organizations based on associations of customer correlation and unity. The Company has aided in transforming clients into anomic living thing whose lives are subjugated by the exploration for a good deal. The company has benefited from its employment practices while at the same time contributing to poverty amongst its employees thus resulting to lagging behind of the United States economy and other parts of the world where it has branches. Recently, plans to improve the employment practices have been meant and implemented in order to improve the living standards for its workers while at the same time contributing positively to the global economy.