Wrongful Termination by Walmart

[Bullet]

Well before I get on with the story, I made the mistake of signing on with this retailer during a temporary remodel which was a night shift thing for about 2 months. Their practices in management (most of it comes from the HQ in Ark) I think is illegal all around but its a corporate giant who owns everything.

Story is their is something the store rents or uses (it gets shipped around the country after use) called Skorpion Jacks, well the problem as to why I think this is a wrongful termination involves one of these, the story is the handles are put into a square hole and these skorpions attach to shelf legs in order to move them. Well some of these skorpion jacks are broken, wheels missing, many are unsafe to work with in what is suppose to be a safety first retailer (so they say) Well some of these jacks the handles you use to push them get stuck and you have a hard time getting them out, well I had one of these and the jack handle slipped from me when pulling it out and hit the arm of a woman next to me who was jacking hers down, needless to say their was little injury there IMO as it was nothing more then the handle just bumping her (not real hard), but she filed a medical report and this is where it all ended for me.

IMO this could of been avoided if the equipment was safe to use in the first place, but they blame it on me for being unsafe and should of asked someone for help......I mean really?? ask help to pull out a jack handle?

I was previously on unemployment from a previous job, so do I have to dispute this termination with the state of Mississippi Unemployment offices?

[Dogmatique]

This is not a wrongful termination.

Though wiki is not the most reliable source in the world, it does have a quite decent definition of what IS a wrongful termination right here

[Bullet]

Would we not use this as possible cause?

"Employer Not Following Own Termination Procedures: Often, the employee handbook or company policy outlines a procedure that must be followed before an employee is terminated. If the employer fires an employee without following this procedure, the employee may have a claim for wrongful termination."

Being walmart you get nothing as an employee basically.

[Dogmatique]

I have no idea. I haven't read the company policy. And even in Mississippi, it may not be automatically binding.

[Bullet]

I dont know what laws Mississippi has regarding such issues.

But to me its wrongful or at least illegal even by company standards since they preach safety everywhere they go but do not really follow that line anyway. IMO they quick to blame everything on everyone else.

[Dogmatique]

The Supreme Court in Mississippi HAS actually identified what you quoted as a possible wrongful termination - but again, without actually reading the company policy it's impossible to say.

read more here

I do have a feeling though that there may be a generic "CYA" clause covering the firing of an employee for negligence - which according to your employer, you were.

Since once again we can't see the policy...it's impossible to say. YOU have your handbook. We don't.

[Bullet]

We dont have a handbook. The temporary crew is just that, they dont get all the benefits and they act as if the temp crew is really not officially part of walmart.

Walmart is all about safety, but their is little training if any ever done in Safety. Their is no safety training on these Skorpion Jacks nor has it ever been mentioned.

My question is how I go about this with th EEOC?

[Dogmatique]

Sigh. I'm sorry, but if there's no handbook or company policy - why did you even raise the matter? It's a completely moot point!

You have no case. Sorry. Try again for unemployment, but don't be surprised of Walmart claims that you were fired for cause. You can TRY to claim that you weren't trained properly, but you can be expected to be asked, "Then why did you use this piece of equipment knowing that you hadn't received the proper training?".

[Bullet]

Then why did you use this piece of equipment knowing that you hadn't received the proper training?".

I dont think the issue is proper training on the skorpions as its not hard to use them, the issue is the equipment is not safe for operation to begin with which lead to all of this.

[Dogmatique]

I dont think the issue is proper training on the skorpions as its not hard to use them, the issue is the equipment is not safe for operation to begin with which lead to all of this.

..and you had every option of saying "Sorry, but can I get some assistance?" or, "I need a different skorpion - this one seems to be faulty".