The news media is discussing a Wal-mart memo which appeared in a New York Times article. The memo said Wal-Mart employees are sicker than average and this combined with the rising costs of health insurance was costing the company money. The memo proposes a number of ways to cut employee benefits.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could limit health and benefits costs by hiring fewer unhealthy workers, reducing subsidies for spouses and cutting payments to retirement accounts, a senior executive of the company said in a memo.
The retailer's employees are getting "sicker than the national population" and aging faster, causing benefits costs to grow faster than sales, M. Susan Chambers, executive vice president for benefits, said in the memo to Wal-Mart's board. Wal-Mart posted the 27-page document on its Web site after The New York Times reported about the memo Wednesday.
The WalmartWatch Blog has a link to the memo in a recent blog post. An article in the Ledger cites an employee-rights lawyer who calls the memo a "cesspool of violations."
"The memo is a cesspool of legal violations," said Jeffrey Winikow, a Los Angeles employee-rights lawyer. Even if the company accepts none of the questionable suggestions it contains, the memo will furnish plaintiffs' lawyers evidence to argue WalMart discriminates against some workers, he said.
The memo -- acquired and publicized this week by Wal-Mart Watch, a nonprofit group allied with labor unions -- virtually guarantees that the retailer, which already is fighting class-action lawsuits over its hiring and promotion practices, will face a slew of new discrimination claims, Winikow said.
