Sam's Club Discriminates by Terminating Employment of Senior Store Employees

[SallyG]

Wal-Mart’s at it AGAIN!

I am/was a loyal Sam’s Club employee for well over 9 yrs, until this morning.  In fact, I wasn't initially the one that went seeking them, I was recruited in Omaha. I was opposed to unions and promoted Sam’s Club at every opportunity to businesses and those I’ve known – I lived and breathed Sam’s Club.  I was a solid Wal-Mart employee and always sided firmly on the company side. In multiple stores I was cross-trained to almost every job in Sam's Club, have worked in many, managed costs, and kept that friendly smile on my face consistently, working whatever hours have been needed to help my team in the club. I focused my attention on our members looking to resolve any challenges they may have had, as customers are the bed-rock of Sam Walton's legacy. With my manager’s wink of approval, I even worked off the clock and through breaks to ensure things got done – quite often. But Buddy, I’m here to tell you, at this point, where's that union representative - sign-me-up !!

Sam's Club, a part of the Wal Mart family is initiating a round of lay-off's across the country today. This is occuring at 8:00 AM meetings on Sunday Jan 24th, today. This is occurring at every Sam’s Club store across the nation. For me, it has occurred at the Columbus, OH stores eliminating at least 30 people per store. In my store, 6308, These are all women/men between the ages of 50 and 70, with the majority in their 70’s.  With well over 500 stores in the US, this amounts to at least 15,000 people. It’s not only the most senior employees that have been targeted and are being given notice that they're being laid-off because their jobs are eliminated. They also selected the outside sales reps and marketing teams to avoid having the issue seen as a discriminatory act against the senior sweet Demo Ladies. They’re taking the others as “good measure” to not appear discriminatory. This is occuring during a challenging economy when Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club has just come off of a profitable year-end close.
 
Regardless of my documented outstanding year-over-year performance, or having, been the employee of the month multiple times in multiple clubs, the employee of the year,  or having  received the highest allowed hourly increase every year since joining Sam’s Club, it's the age that's the key-driver in these current round of actions. I’m a 56 year old, white female, full-time employee. Sam's Clubs has younger employees, with far-less time (many having been with Sam's from only a few days to a few weeks) and they're carefully selecting the most senior employees.  As compensation they’re advising long-term senior employees that they can apply for part-time, starting-pay position, such as Cart Person, or Maintenance. Can you imagine a 70 year old woman lugging those carts around the parking lot! To get severance I’ve been asked to sign a release form stating that I’ll not file any form of discrimination suit against Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club.  I’ve 45 days to sign this form, or lose my 9-week severance package.
 
This is a company that’s promoted themselves to be the customer-friendly store and dedicated to their employees. With these long-term planned actions, they've clearly demonstrated that they treat their employees with an absolute lack of caring, and total dis-respect. I’m now a part of a growing number of people supporting litigation against Wal-Mart – baby, count me in!

Sally