Walmart’s Latest Employee-Relations Debacle Speaks to the Need for Proactive Communications Policies

A Kemptville, Ontario, Walmart employee was fired after urging at a customer to not leave his dog in his car while he shopped. The story quickly grew legs and amounts to yet another PR black eye for the company.

Walmart had enjoyed a wave of decent PR for a while, but now it finds itself back in a defensive posture–both because of this incident and also for other employee-relations horror stories that play to a now-familiar narrative. In fact, it’s hard to stay on top of all the negative stories about the big-box retailer. However, this particular story might have been avoided had the company weighed its options more carefully and recognized the value of quality employee-relations.

The lesson for PR pros is to think ahead. That may seem to be a simple notion, but when you dive into Wal-Mart’s handling of the situation, it seems clear that management responded in a knee-jerk fashion.

The employee admits that she directly addressed the customer who allegedly left his dog in the car. She also indicates that the customer responded with anger and claimed that he would not shop at the store again. Later that day the she was called into her manager’s office and told that such issues should be taken up with him directly. Unsatisfied with this solution, she instead declared that the next time she would contact the police. Following that statement, she alleges, she was terminated.

The manager was correct to ask his employee to openly communicate troublesome situations with management, and to avoid confronting the company’s stakeholders directly. Where he arguably went wrong was in terminating an employee who was acting on a humane impulse—rather than exploring alternative solutions or council from human resources. Not only that, but the manager’s decision to let his employee go helps reaffirm a popular narrative that Walmart cares considerably more about its bottom line than its employees.

Walmart (and others) should consider ahead of time how actions can impact reputation. And that goes for a company's entire personnel—from a store greeter all the way up to the CEO.

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CPI (M) warns Centre against amendment in Labour laws

CPI (M) today warned the Central government against any amendment in Labour laws as they were an outcome of struggle and not from any favour.          

"The government will face protests in the streets if it goes ahead with its intention to amend labour laws, which are an outcome of a long struggle by the labor force and not by any favor by the corporate sectors," party's Politburo member Brinda Karat said here.

"The government thinks it can bulldoze labour laws as it has majority in Lok Sabha, but the labour force will respond to it with protests," she at a press conference.

Karat was reacting to Minister of State for Labour and Employment Vishnu Deo Sai yesterday informing the Rajya Sabha that amendment to a host of Labour laws was under active consideration of the government.

"We also apprehend an end to MGNREGA after its budget presentation... Forest rights are also under threat on the pretext of speeding up clearances for projects," Karat claimed.

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Bolivia legalizes child labor for kids from age 10

Bolivia has passed a law authorizing children to work from age 10, saying the rule is necessary due to realities in the impoverished country where kids join the labor market prematurely.

The reduced legal limit has come under fire from critics who said it opens the door to allowing more children to work from a younger age.

The International Labor Organization is investigating the law, amid fears it breached global rules.

Vice President Alvaro Garcia yesterday signed the measure into law at the Quemado presidential palace in the absence of President Evo Morales, who was traveling to Brazil.

"We have just passed a law we had to develop because of the reality in Bolivia," Garcia said in a signing ceremony attended by representatives of children's organizations.

"It would have been easy to pass a law in line with international conventions but it would not apply because Bolivia's reality has other needs and characteristics."

Under the new law, the minimum age for employment is 14 years, though exceptions are granted under specific circumstances for children to work from age 12 for an employer and from age 10 if self-employed.

Bolivia's previous labor code permitted no exceptions to a minimum age of 14, which ILO rules allow developing countries to adopt instead of the global limit of 15.

The new law was approved earlier this month by parliament. Morales, a leftist, is a former subsistence farmer and trade union activist.

Bolivians often work from an early age out of necessity. Many of the youngsters are employed in agriculture or as street hawkers.

By reducing the legal limit, lawmakers hope to help eradicate the extreme poverty and other conditions that lead to child labor from the South American country by 2025.

The law also sets a penalty of 30 years in jail without pardon for adults causing violent infanticide.

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Amendments in labor laws: Ease of doing biz

The public law fails to address the issues relating to the relationship between & among “Employers, Employees & labor organizations”, which is taken up by Labor law is built to harmonize all angles of the relationship. The laws are designed on various states, the formation and amendments depends on various factors, one major being the economic state of the country. British were primarily involved in shaping the early laws of India.

The factory act was 1^st introduced in 1883, in order to make Indian labor costlier as they offered stiff competition to British textiles in export market. Thus India received the first stipulation of eight hours of work, the abolition of child labor and the restriction of women in night employment and the introduction of overtime wages.

The Factories Act, 1948 (Labor laws enacted by Central Government and enforced by the State Governments), Apprentices Act, 1961 (Labor laws enacted by Central Government and enforced both by Central and State Governments), The Labor Laws (Exemption from furnishing returns and maintaining registers by certain establishments) Act, 1988 (Labor laws enacted by Central Government and enforced both by Central and State Governments)

As a measure taken by the Indian government to improve ease of doing business in India, The amendments to the three acts mentioned above are cleared by the cabinet.  India's labor laws must be aligned with the needs of the 21st century. Below is the doing business(DB) data of India

The outdated apprenticeship law is one reason why India has only 3, 00,000 formal apprentices, while Germany has six million. The key changes proposed in the Apprenticeship Act include dropping the clause that mandates imprisonment of company directors that fail to implement the Apprenticeship Act of 1961 and doing away with an amendment proposed by the UPA mandating employers to absorb at least half of its apprentices in regular jobs besides adding 500 new trades and vocations under the scheme, including skills for services sectors like IT-enabled services.

The proposed changes to the Factories act focuses on five points:

1.  Enhancing the safety of workers and for better amenities on factory premises; doubling the provision of overtime from 50 hours a quarter to 100 hours in some cases and from 75 hours to 125 hours in other work of public interest
2. Increasing the penalty for violation of the Act
3. Relaxing the norms for women to work in some industry segments at night; and reducing to 90 from 240 the number of days an employee needs to work before becoming eligible for benefits like leave with pay.
4. The proposed amendment would do away with a provision for the prosecution of factory owners for petty offenses like not maintaining a clean toilet, for instance.
5. The amendment proposes to reduce the punishments prescribed under such heads to remove the fear of persecution among factory owners

 The proposal to amend Labor Laws (exemption from furnishing returns and maintaining registers by certain establishments) Act, 1988, will allow thousands of small industries to file just one return for compliance with a dozen or more labor laws. Once the amendment is passed, it will exempt small industries with less than 40 workers from the need to comply separately with each of the laws.  A single-page return on compliance will do.

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Rangaraj K S

Head HR & Compliance at Texport Overseas Pvt. Ltd.

Bengaluru

He is an HR generalist with varied industry exposure of more than 20yrs. Presently, working in Texport Overseas Pvt. Ltd., as Head HR & Compliance, since 1year.

He even has experience in various industries, to name a few; he worked at Bombay Rayon Fashion Ltd (BRFL) as Vice President CSR, Personnel & Industrial Relations – Garment Division. As Group Head HR at EPIC Designers Ltd, AVP – HR at Texport Syndicate India Ltd, Head Compliance South at T Group Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Country Head-HR at Tyco fire & Security, and many more.

Education Background:

He has his schooling from Swami Vivekanand High School Sindhi society Chembur, Mumbai and Airport High School, Mumbai

Interests & Achievements:

He has done few stage shows and won awards in singing. He is very much interested in Professional Management training and held centre stage in conducting programs with excellent communication and language skills. He also has his liking towards Cricket where he played lot of matches in his younger days.

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