The Perfect Scam: How Walmart Is Screwing Employees Out of All of Their Benefits

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/the-perfect-scam-how-walmart-is-screwing-employees-out-of-all-of-their-benefits/

I wrote an article a while back detailing how evil Walmart really is as a company.  I have a source who works for them who often details the disgusting business practices of this company and how it treats its employees.

Well, it’s getting even worse.

My source actually works for Sam’s Club (which is owned by Walmart) in a different city than where I live. But they’ve assured me that if each club isn’t experiencing this yet, they soon will.  I have also seen and verified all documentation backing up my source’s claims, and have verified with certainty that they are true.

See, what Walmart has done is set the bar for which part-time associates (employees are called associates at Walmart) can receive benefits at an average of 24 hours per week.  At this threshold an employee is given the most minimal options for health coverage, about 8-12 hours of personal days and maybe 12 or so hours of vacation per year.  It really all depends on how long you’ve worked for the company.

In general, the more hours you average, the better benefits packages you qualify for and the more personal/vacation time you get.

However, recently an email was sent out from corporate to all clubs with instructions not to allow part-time associates to go over 24 hours.  They’re essentially treating going over 24 hours just like they do overtime pay.  Meaning if you go over, someone’s getting written up.

What this does is ensure part-time associates are prevented from hitting that magic 24 hour average which would qualify them for minimum benefits.

Oh, but it gets better.

They’re not scheduling associates for two or three 8 hour shifts — oh no, they’re scheduling them four or five 4 hour shifts.  They’re still working associates the equivalent of a 5 day workweek, just drastically reducing their hours.  So they’re making it very difficult for these associates to even get a second job.

In fact, at this Sam’s, they do schedules 3 weeks at a time and they just pulled the already made schedules for the next 2 weeks, completely redoing them to make the required cuts.

Then if you want to get the max 23.99 hours per week, you’ll need open availability—otherwise you might end up being scheduled zero hours, which has already happened to a few associates at my source’s club. Yes, you’ve read that right, there are people who “work” for Walmart that are now getting scheduled absolutely no hours simply because their new scheduling system is set around open availability and punishes those who might have a limited schedule.

So what Walmart is wanting is for their part-time employees to have wide-open availability, yet work less than 24 hours per week.

And if you happen to be scheduled, say, 22 or 23 hours and want to pick up more—nope, you won’t be allowed.

Then don’t even think about full-time.  About 15% of the associates at this club are full-time and it’s nearly impossible to get one of those spots.  And no, they don’t create more for hard work.

In fact, hard work doesn’t even matter.  My source said after one of their supervisors bent over backwards to get their numbers up and fix a lot of problems they were experiencing on the front end of the club, their hard work and dedication was rewarded with—a 20% reduction in their hours after this email was sent out.

Even better, recently when a 3 year associate turned his 2 weeks notice in after having their hours cut from 36 per week to 18—he was told to not even bother coming in for the next 2 weeks of his shifts.  They just cut them completely.

And this was a recent “Associate of the Month.”  Which just goes to show you how little Walmart actually values people.

The greed of Walmart is reprehensible.  And while I know other corporations treat their employees similarly, many of them don’t have the enormous wealth of Walmart.
Now I know there will be some who say they just love working for Walmart and most of this is untrue, and that’s fine.  I’ve known my source for over a decade and verified all of the information myself.  And yes, for a very select few they might see Walmart as “great place to work.”  But I promise you, for 90% of Walmart associates, their experience working for the company is terrible.

What they’ve essentially done is set up the perfect scam.  They’re attempting to hold employees to such low economic levels, the only place they’ll be able to shop at is—Walmart.  And much of the shopping they’ll be doing at Walmart will be with funds the government has provided to them, because of how poor they’ve become by working at Walmart.

Walmart is the poster child for the greedy, morally bankrupt corporation, and their recent actions prove that they’re proud of that fact.