Labor Group Petitions Walmart to Create Worker Advisory Council
Labor organization United for Respect urged Walmart shareholders to support creating a Pandemic Workforce Advisory Council of hourly workers to advise the Walmart board, ensuring policies and practices are designed and implemented "in a way that best reduces the spread…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
of COVID-19" and future pandemics through Walmart stores and distribution centers, said a Thursday SEC filing. The group cited an April Human Impact Partners report saying it’s “likely” there have been over 125,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,200 deaths among Walmart associates and that if the retailer had had adequate paid sick time policy in place before the pandemic, 8,000 fewer employees would have become sick with the coronavirus and 133 lives could have been saved. To respond effectively to the pandemic, the Walmart board “needs -- and does not currently have -- direct, open feedback loops with associates on the frontlines,” it said. The proposal “could lead to improved employee health outcomes, retention and productivity, build good will among associates and customers, and enable the Board to better protect Walmart from further operational problems, legal risks, and reputational harms related to the COVID-19 pandemic, or future pandemics,” it said. United for Respect urged shareholders to vote for Proposal 7 on their proxy cards for the June 3 annual shareholder meeting to include hourly associates as director candidates. The Walmart board recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal. Walmart didn’t comment Thursday.