From the Charleston Gazette:
Workers at the Nitro Marketplace Wal-Mart say the store has renewed a controversial scheduling policy designed to force out higher-paid employees with benefits and replace them with part-timers.Last week, managers told longtime employees who have had the same weekday daytime schedules for years that they now must add night and weekend shifts, or else face drastic reductions in hours. The workers said they were told no exceptions would be made for people with children who could not arrange for child care.
“They said this came down from the home office and that there were no ands, ifs or buts,” said one worker who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. A mother of two, she has worked the same schedule for five years. “You have to choose between your work and your family,” she said.
Babysitters are unaffordable, and no local child-care services are open on the weekends, said several parents working at the store. Workers who have not yet agreed to increase their available hours have been warned by managers that they may be scheduled for zero hours some weeks, said several employees who also asked not to be named.
One worker said she contacted a district manager and was told that the store would try to accommodate her schedule. But store managers told her and several other employees that their new schedules would be generated by a corporate computer and could not be changed in any way.Nitro store managers would not comment, but a representative from Wal-Mart’s corporate office issued a statement acknowledging that the store’s scheduling policy had been tightened.
Work schedules at the Nitro store “have deviated over time from the optimal schedule to best serve our customers,” said spokesman Dan Fogleman in the statement.
“In order to ensure an appropriate number of associates are available to help customers, associates who have in the past worked a specific schedule, typically daytime hours on weekdays, are being asked
to be more flexible with their availability to meet the needs of the customers. ... Sometimes we have to make tough decisions. Ultimately, we will staff our stores in a manner that best meets the needs of our
customers.”Another Wal-Mart representative, Mia Masten, said on Saturday that the store would do everything it could to accommodate workers with children. “We’re always looking at how to serve our customers best,” she said. “But we also try to be flexible and accommodate associates’ needs.”
Masten would not say if employees would be fired or stripped of work hours for refusing to open their availability. She also denied that the scheduling changes were aimed at squeezing out higher-paid full-time workers.
Full-time workers at the store are eligible for health insurance and enrollment in a 401(k) plan after six months on the job. After a year, they get one week of vacation, and at five years they get two weeks. At seven years, full-timers are fully vested in the company.
About 15 people turned up at a rally held at the Capitol on Saturday to protest the policy. Organizers, who included current and former employees of the Nitro store, circulated a petition denouncing the scheduling changes as “unfair labor management.”
Last spring, the Nitro store’s managers instituted an “open availability” policy, requiring workers to commit to working practically any shift on any day or face being fired. Shortly thereafter, the corporate office nullified the policy, saying store management had acted improperly.
Posted by Laura - March 13, 2006 09:49 AM - In The News