It hasn’t been a great few months for Wal-Mart, at least as far as public relations goes. Two months ago, we learned that the retail behemoth is considering a new employment plan that includes fewer employee benefits and discrimination based one’s physical abilities. One month ago, questions arose over a suspicious sweetheart deal Wal-Mart struck with Bush’s Labor Department over child-labor law violations.
This week, however, has been particularly problematic for the company. On Tuesday, we learned that Wal-Mart is the target of federal criminal probe over the company’s handling of hazardous waste.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday said federal prosecutors were investigating whether it had improperly transported returned goods, ranging from hair spray to charcoal, that are deemed hazardous waste.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the world’s biggest retailer said it was informed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles that it is the target of a criminal investigation into whether it violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
According to the Wal-Mart, the government is looking into whether the company improperly used its own trucks to transport material deemed hazardous to centralized facilities, rather than using certified hazardous waste carriers to ship that material directly to designated disposal sites.
And while that’s embarrassing enough, Wal-Mart got bad news yesterday about penalties for denying workers meal breaks.
A California jury on Thursday ordered Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, to pay $172 million in damages for failing to provide meal breaks to nearly 116,000 hourly workers as required under state law. […]
The suit, filed on behalf of employees of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores in California, argued that the chain violated state law more than eight million times from Jan. 1, 2001, to May 6, 2005, said the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jessica Grant of the Furth Firm of San Francisco.
Wal-Mart’s attorneys said the decision was unique to California and that it had no bearing on any other state. What they didn’t mention was that the company is facing similar cases in 40 other states.
It’s probably fair to say these developments are “minor setbacks” in Wal-Mart’s drive to improve its faltering image.