Punishing workers for taking sick leave puts Wal-Mart on track to be a major spreader of swine flu this fall. The retail giant gives workers demerits and deducts pay for staying home when they are sick or to care for a sick child.
In interviews with Wal-Mart “associates” at stores across New York State, employees confirmed that they had no choice but to work sick. One Wal-Mart employee from a supercenter explained: “Plenty of girls are coughing their brains out. But they cannot go home because of points. Everyone comes in sick. You cant stay home and God forbid if you leave early.” “Associates” –including food handlers working in the grocery, meat and even deli departments—are routinely coming to work with the flu, conjunctivitis, fevers, strep throat, diarrhea and vomiting. It is only when an employee is coughing too loudly and violently that he or she will be transferred from the food section to another department, where the sick worker will still be interacting with customers.
An experienced worker at a Wal-Mart discount store similarly confirmed that “people are coming in sick all the time.” In fact, just last week several cashiers at her store came to work with flu-like symptoms, only staying home when they were so sick it was impossible for them to work. (The most contagious period for swine flu is at the beginning of the illness.)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is strongly recommending that employers “advise workers to be alert to any signs of fever and other signs of influenza-like illness before reporting to work every day, and notify their supervisors and stay home if they are ill.”
1 comment:
Having worked for Walmart's Corporate Office, unfortunately I would have to agree that it's not so easy out there in the field for those that work for stores directly.
Unless you are managment, you don't get a lot of sick time, and the time that you do have takes quite a while to accumulate.
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