News

The Public Attorney’s Office in the Brazilian State of Alagoas is suing Walmart for US$55 million over labour rights abuses in the state.

According to the Alagoas Public Attorney’s Office, complaints and statements taken from workers show that the Walmart group of stores humiliates employees, does not respect working hours of staff, and does not provide adequate health and safety equipment.

Walmart is accused of harassment of employees through publically giving disciplinary warnings in front of other staff, and punishing workers when their cash does not balance without investigating who is responsible.

The company is also accused of illegally requiring staff to work overtime hours, and not allowing for lunch or meal breaks as required by law. In Brazil, overtime hours worked should not exceed the legal limit of 2 hours and workers are entitled to one day off from work per week, which should be preferentially scheduled on a Sunday, but this right is also allegedly not respected by Walmart.

The Public Attorney’s Office accuses Walmart of anti-union behavior after the local union protested against the company in September and October of 2013 and staff were retaliated against and fired.

Health and safety equipment in stores was found to be inadequate, as well as fire hydrants and extinguishers being blocked.

Walmart was found to have irregular cash transport practices, where workers have to undertake an action known as “sangria” (noun for “bleeding”) where they are required to transport money through the store to a room without adequate training to protect their physical safety.

Within the last year, Walmart has been condemned with two large fines instigated by the Public Attorney’s Office. One was promoted by the federal office of the Public Attorney’s Office for R$22.3 million (US$9.75 million) in October of 2013, and in January 2014 was fined R$17 million (US$7.53 million) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte over labour rights abuses.

Source: http://www.prt19.mpt.gov.br/informe-se/noticias-do-mpt-go/124-acao-do-mp...