Can this be a CASE against WALMART?

Question

my bro works at walmart. they have a new night supervisor that harrasses employees(targets blacks) my bro have been having trouble with her for a while like others. Last night she fired him b/c they got into it. so he goes to clock out then goes to to the music dept. to check out some CD's she follows him back there and yells I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT. so he tells her this is walmart a public store he has rights to buy even tho he not employed there. so she calls the police for criminal trespassing by the time the police do arrive he's outside and they pick him and take him to jail. he still in there this morning no word when he will get out yet. DOES THIS SOUND LIKE A CASE? he didnt provoke her he just clocked out and went to the cd dept. My aunt has worked there for about 30 years and said people get fired all the time from there and walk around they dont have to leave. so did his rights get violated when he went to jail?? lawsuit yes or no

but he did not do anything to provoke her...witnesses even say she was wrong.....she doesnt have the right to harrass people she should be fired dont u think?

update****
Walmart went bailed him out of jail they got all the managers and stuff coming in to deal with this matter. But i believe they have a lawsuit on their hands now and they know it. They trying to get him to sign papers but its TOO LATE

Answer 1

I would say legally, depends on what they got into it over. But she did not have to go chase him down and yell at him and call the law. And he shouldn't have to go to jail either. That is ridiculous. If she fired him because he was disturbing the peace, or if he was the one who instigated an argument or refused to do work that he was told to do, then yes, he should have been fired. If he was fired because of a simple disagreement... that is wrong. If she is the instigator then I think you should look into a legal way to get get justice. Walmart is a public place and if he didn't violate any rules of being in Walmart he should not have been arrested. There is a lawsuit against Walmart AND the police department if you are in the right and they are in the wrong. I would say get all your ducks in a row, make sure you don't leave any loop holes for them to get out of it, and go for it. I sure would.


***I DONT KNOW WHY I GOT THE THUMBS DOWN... BUT IF WALMART BAILED HIM OUT OF JAIL THEY KNOW SHE DONE WRONG, NOT HIM. DON'T LET HIM SIGN ANY PAPERS! ESPECIALLY THOSE STUPID RESIGNATION PAPERS THEY GIVE YOU SOMETIMES WHEN YOU GET FIRED.

Answer 2

You have an internal issue you can discuss with Wal-Mart management, but you don't have a legal "case." It doesn't matter if that man didn't get kicked out or not. You misused Wal-Mart property by playing on the cart like that, which you can be fired for, and you yelled back at that man. As a Wal-Mart employee you are held to a higher standard than he is. The correct thing would have been for you to leave the situation and contact a manager about the man. Not yell back at him. You can speak to your district manager, followed by your regional manager all the way up to corporate if you want. Beyond that, you don't have a "case." You are employed at-will and can be fired for any reason including no reason. While that man was out of line, you were too. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Answer 3

No, the law is on Walmart's side.

Walmart is a company, thus it is private property, not a "public store"

He should have dealt with the problem properly instead of acting like an arrogant moron.
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You have to understand that the trespassing and the firing are in no way related. If the firing is due to race, which he'll have to prove, then he can make a case for being told to leave the store being a result of that. However, at this point he was merely told to leave the store and refused to do so which is trespassing. He got arrested leaving the store, out of the actual store. To arrest someone, the police have to see them doing something illegal-he was in the process of complying with what they asked, so there is very likely more to this whole issue.

Answer 4

I'm sorry your brother is having this experience.

When you are told to leave a place by a person who is in authority at that place, you must leave. I suspect you and your brother can both understand this, but he was angry and not thinking. Imagine that you were in charge of this supervisor, fired her, and told her to leave. What would you do if she didn't?

There may be ways this situation could have been averted in the first place. However, you must always keep in mind that there is no law that requires a company to run its business well. Anybody who wants to mismanage a business can do so. Many things are unfair that are not unlawful.

That said, racial harassment is unlawful. If you feel that you are being treated differently because of your race, keep your cool and keep a journal: what happened, who was there (first and last name), why you feel that the incident was based on your race. If the harassment persists for several weeks, or becomes blatant (is accompanied by racial epithets, the display of a noose, etc.), contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Tell them that you want to speak with an investigator to get information. It will likely take several days or more to get to talk to someone. You may be sent a questionnaire to fill out first, or a letter telling you where and when to visit an EEOC office. At this point you are just looking for information. You want to know how bad the situation seems to someone who listens to discrimination complaints for a living. This is a good idea, because it could prevent you from making complaints that, after you have had a chance to talk them out, don't seem quite so bad.

If the most objective people you can find agree with you that it sounds like you're being harassed because of your race, check your employment manual for what you are supposed to do with race harassment claims. You're probably supposed to report the matter to a higher level manager or human resources representative. Do it. Be sure that you say that you believe you are being harassed because of your race and not just that you are being treated unfairly. Be clear on how you are being harassed. Give examples. Make a record of what you reported to whom and when. Then forget it. Do not expect them to get back to you, no matter what they say. Just wait and watch to see if the situation changes in any way.

If race based harassment continues over a period of a few weeks after your report, continue to keep records and file another report. Be calm, be clear, give examples, explain why its racial. It's now time to consider filing a charge of discrimination with the EEOC.

When people lose control and start getting into it with their supervisors, they almost guarantee that they will be fired, and there will be no recourse for that termination. On the other hand if they keep their cool and complain in good faith that they are being discriminated against, even if they are fired, they will likely have recourse. Or "a suit."

Nothing is ever easy and its not a perfect system. But there are ways to handle things that don't involve getting mad and doing something ill advised that lands you in jail.

I hope that by the time you read this you will have heard that your brother is being released. Even without having made the reports or kept the records I described he should contact the EEOC and describe what happened to him--particularly the harassment he experience over a period of time. They will ask him questions about what he has been through and take him seriously. If it results in nothing more than understanding better what to do in the future, it will have been worthwhile. The links before are the EEOC home page, and EEOC guidance pertaining to harassment by a supervisor.

(The information from your aunt is interesting, but can she name someone who was fired by this same supervisor for similar reasons, who was not advised to leave the store? Or who was advised to leave, refused, and the police were not called? These are the appropriate comparisons and they might be difficult.)

Answer 5

Your brother has a civil case against both WalMart and the Supervisor for "Racial Harassment" and "Racial Discrimination". He also has a case of "Unfair Dismissal" He also has the right to make a complaint against the Supervisor, for crimes that are race related. It is an offence in both the US and the UK for any person to discriminate, harrass, assault etc. etc. any other person because of their colour, race, religion or sexuality. He should make a formal complaint and then seek redress from the company, through the civil courts. As for being arrested, sadly he has no case. The store (company) has the right to refuse to allow any person to enter the store and / or purchase anything. They also have the right to remove any person from the store, if that person refuses. If somebody doesn't leave, they have the right to either use sufficient force to remove them or call the police and make a complaint. Most major companies, including WalMart, have a clause in the employment contract that bars ex-employees from using their stores should they be dismissed from employment. Therefore, the Supervisor had the right to ask him to leave. However, I would argue that her reasoning was solely due to "Racial Prejudice". He needs to put the arrest behind him for now and concentrate on suing both WalMart and the Supervisor. He can add "Wrongful Arrest" to his claim as an extra bonus as if he wins the case against WalMart and the Supervisor, he can claim that the Supervisor made false allegations, to have him arrested, out of malice. Tell him to get a good Lawyer as he may also have a case against the police for wrongful arrest, holding him against his will and breaches of his human right to go about his business in peace. As far as I can see, unless he created a disturbance in front of the police, they should have sent him away with a warning and with the advice to seek legal advice. If he did not break any other law, apart from trespass, they should not be holding him. He should have been processed and released in a reasonable amount of time. Therefore the police have as good as kidnapped him.

Answer 6

Depends on what your definition of "got into it" means. If it was bad enough that she told him to leave the store, he has to leave the store. The management has the right to refuse service to anyone. Once she told him to leave and he did not, then it is criminal trespass.

I do not think you are getting the whole story, though, because if he was outside when the cops showed up, I doubt that they would have arrested him unless he was causing trouble at the time.

As for when he will get released...he will probably get a hearing this morning and bail will be set.

Answer 7

I don't know about any legal case for his firing, but as far as getting kicked out of the store, if he was being disruptive, then wal-mart can ask them to leave. They can do this with any person -- Wal-mart is not a public store as you claim, it is propbably private property and a corporation. If the person was asked to leave because of their race/sex/etc, then it would be descrimanatory, but I do not believe anyone has a "right" to shop at wal-mart.

Answer 8

He needs to go over her head and file a complaint with higher management make sure they investigate the allegations ... I would try to get her fired and get your job back .... If that doesn't work then get a lawyer and try to sue, but I bet you can get somewhere without costing tax payers money over something like this.. Good Luck!

Answer 9

No, after he was told to leave and when he chose to stay he was then trespassing. Regardless of whether the same has happened to other people or not HE was the one who got busted.

It sounds like to me your brother probably aggravated the situation by being belligerent. That’s just a guess.

Answer 10

Here is where you are wrong.

Walmart is not a "public" store. It's a public corporation. You brother was on private property and was told to leave. He did not and that's trespassing.

If you hired a cleaning service and told them they were not needed anymore in your home. Then they went to your mantle to look at your family photos. You told them to leave and they didn't. That's called trespassing.