Fighting Her Foot Recovery Every Step Of The Way
The foot doctor told me I had the feet of a 90 year old woman. After the reconstructive foot and ankle surgery I was in a wheel chair and then on crutches for a total of 14 months. I had insurance medical and long-term disability that I purchased through payroll deductions. I had this insurance since the day I started and had never used the long-term disability. When it came time to use the insurance, which I had paid for the past 13 years, Wal-Mart decided to attempt to make my life difficult. The insurance carrier (Hartford), which Wal-Mart is in bed with tried to deny my long and short-term disability during my recovery from surgery. I didn’t take their bullshit and reported the incident to the state insurance board immediately via a 5-page complaint. To make a long story brief, the insurance company and Wal-Mart were investigated and I immediately got the benefits I had paid for the past 13 years. Towards the end of my recovery, my doctor contacted Wal-Mart on several occasions, specifically the store manager and personnel manager, to solicit their cooperation in my return to work and to honor the initial medical restrictions placed on me. Since I am a 52 year old female the recovery process needed to include medical limitations of no heavy lifting or ladder climbing. The management response to my doctor was very cold and indifferent. I then received a certified letter from the store manager ordering me back to work or I would be terminated; at that time I still was not medically released by the surgeon to return to work. I showed my Doctor the certified letter, which infuriated him. My doctor reluctantly, after my requests, and my expressing my fear of termination, released me back to work with a limitation of 4 hours a day and no lifting or ladder climbing. This documentation/release was given to Wal-Mart personnel in writing from my doctor. The doctor also telephoned the Wal-Mart manager and requested his cooperation in my recovery. Upon my return to Wal-Mart, with the above listed medical limitations, I was placed in a freight-handling, ladder climbing position, in direct conflict with the doctor’s orders and limitations. I brought this to the managers’ attention and was told that it was the only position available. However, a position for a male employee had been created behind the counter in Sporting Goods as he claimed he had a stroke. The position I left prior to surgery was the Sporting Goods Department Manager of nine years! Since I had invested 15 years of my life into that sad sack of s*** company, I decided to grin and bear it, which was a mistake. I continued working like a dog for the bastards and was transferred to the position of I.C.S. team leader. I started to become a little vocal and speak out against civil rights violations and discrimination and violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Wal-Mart did not like me informing others of their rights and invoking my constitutional right of freedom of speech so I was terminated on 12-23-2004 just prior to receiving the yearly profit sharing bonus which they refused to pay. This is my horror story, my advice to anyone working for Wal-Mart: know your rights, exercise them, do not put up with Wal-Mart violating your rights or human dignity, and SUE the living shit out of the Corporation and individual Manager (s) punitively and civilly!
—anonymous
