Kaplan Business School 2018 – Man 202 Ethics

Ana Laura Veloso e Araujo 127047

Patricia Tavares Silva 127703
Thomas Dopita 129122
Nelson Santos 110228
 Corporate Social Responsability Walmart Case’s
study
CSR - The European
commission defines CSR
as ‘The responsibility of
the enterprises for their
impacts on society’.
Walmart has been
involved in
environmental and
The ethical responsibilities Social Conflicts.
are practices that have not
been codified into the law.

Do Conflicts Affect a
Company’s Corporate Social
Responsibility Policy?
Companies are created to Walmart is involved
provide goods and using child labor in
services to the public. Bangladesh
Also to make profit. Society expect every factories.
company to do what is
right and fair.
Walmart Profile

In the 1980s, when was

the first Sam’s Club was
opened. Initially, serving
12 small businesses and
On July 2, 1962, first individuals. Also, the first
Walmart store opened Walmart supercenter.
in Rogers, Arkansas.
2000s New Millennium – A mobile
experience starts to operate in all
stores.
Nowadays, Walmart operates over
11,700 retail units.
Operating under 65 banners and
present in 28 countries. Approximately
2.3 million associates around the
world where 1.5 million are in the U.S

1970 - Walmart becomes By 1990, Walmart achieved the 2010 The first store
a publicly traded nation’s number 1 retailer and the was opened in India.
company. The first stock idea of low prices goes international
is sold at $16.50 per
share.
 Walmart’s CSR polices and
reporting
 How Walmart is able to use its contractual relationships to regulate
behaviour among suppliers around the globe with respect to product quality,
working conditions for the suppliers empoyees and ethical conduct?

 Mike Duke, Walmart´s CEO ‘This change reflects the new social and
environmental dimensions we have added to our efforts (...) We believe
transparency and accountability are part of being a good and responsible
company´.

 Walmart´s financial contribuitions in kind, such as investments in education,

health, commitmets to fight hunger, support for local farmers and access to
healthier and affordable food, can also be found in Walmart´s Global
Responsability Report 2011.
 Walmart Conflicts
Strikes and poor treatment
Walmart is facing plenty of criticism from unhappy employees over the last two
decades:
Unstable schedules and working hours
Underappreciation Low salary Poor health insurance War against unions

In 2000 closes 180 First unionized store

meat counters due in 2004 closed
to unionization following year

In 2003, 250 illegal Six cases of unpaid work

immigrants arrested resulted in over 1billion US
dollars in fines
Walmart’s conflicts –Group Coments

As fortune.com (Matthews, 2014) states that Walmart has faced plenty of criticism over the past few
years, the research shows some inner problems. Problems in form of unhappy employees, which are
complaining about being underpaid, underappreciated and not having a stable working schedule with
unstable working hours and even poor health insurance
Walmart has faced many strikes connected with the employees dissatisfaction and low wages, but
surprisingly successfully for the company keeps its employees completely union free. And how is that
possible? Walmart found every gap there is in a poor U.S. labor law, thanks to which has a possibility to
actually stand against unionization, which Walmart stated as a disastrous result if someone tries so.
Additionally, there is also ridiculously low penalties for employers that violate the law. (Dickinson, 2013)
Few of Walmart’s practices and conflicts (Boudway, 2012):
In 2000 the butchers in Jacksonville Walmart voted to join a local union resulted in Walmart’s closure of
180 meat counters in Walmart stores.
Operation Rollback in 2003, when federal agents arrested 250 illegal immigrants working for Walmart
resulted in a fine of 11million Dollars to government.
When in 2004 a first store in Jonquiére became unionized, Walmart closed the store the following year.
In 2005 Walmart pays 172million to 116 000 workers for not providing breaks, and only five other cases
resulting in Walmart paying over 1 billion for unpaid work.
 Walmart Stores Inc V. Dukes et al.
 Betty Dukes and around 1.6 million other female employees accuse Walmart
or gender discrimination in pay and promotion.

 In 2001 the lawsuits starts

 2004 class certification begins

 2009 accepted at Supreme court as Wal-Mart v. Dukes

 2011 Dukes and female employees fail to prove themselves as a class, not
having enough proof of companywide discrimination
Walmart Caught Using Child Labour In Bangladesh

Bangladesh Population
* 157,826,578 (est.) Child labor - children ages 5-14
total number: 4,485,497
percentage: 13% (2006 est.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs715NpVXMo
Walmart Caught Using Child Labour In Bangladesh – Group coments

According to UNICEF (The United Nations International Children Emergency Fund), child labour is defined as
any activity that affects a child’s health and education.
An article published in 2016 on Daily Sun showed that 12,6% of the children, approximately 4,485,497
children aged between 5 to 14 years old are in the work force.
One scandal involved Walmart, the giant on retail field. Walmart operates over 11,700 retail units under 65
banners in 28 countries.
In 2005, children aged 14 years old where working for less than $50 a month in factories in Bangladesh. It is
known that companies install their factories in poor countries and pay cheap for taxes and salaries.
Ages later in 2014 another article published by The Guardian seemed to repeat the story. Poor work condition,
lower payments and long hours working.
Walmart in their defence claims that is difficult to control sweatshops because they are outsourced.
Therefore, those conditions does not belong to their values. Furthermore, there are expectations that the
government it turns stricter and apply severs rules and punishments.

Reference
Butler, S. and Brignall, M. (2018). Bangladesh garment factories still exploiting child labour for UK products.
[online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/06/bangladesh-garment-
factories-child-labour-uk
CBC. (2018). Wal-Mart to cut ties with Bangladesh factories using child labour | CBC News. [online] Available
at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/wal-mart-to-cut-ties-with-bangladesh-factories-using-child-labour-1.539025
Daily Sun. (2018). Child labour in Bangladesh | daily sun. [online] Available at: http://www.daily-
sun.com/arcprint/details/146300/Child-labour-in-Bangladesh/2016-06-22
Walmart’s CSR polices post-
conflicts COC explicitly establish
that Walmart would not
Walmart Report on Ethical When was tolerate the use of child
ICTI CARE Process labor and set age of 14
developed its Sourcing responded generated its first
first code of that Walmart stopped general Report on as the minimum age for
conduct doing business with Ethical Sourcing. suppliers to hire
141 factories. workers
(Walmartethics.com,
2018).

1992 2005 2006 2009 2012 2018

the Walmart’s has changed the Gender Currently, Walmart publishes a

tolerance policy related to
underage to zero
Walmart has also
stablished new goals in
sustainability report.
Equality report called “ Global
Responsibilities Report” . Which
covers the three dimensions of
People, Planet and Profit.
(Bizfluent.com,2018)
 Sugestions
Moral standards - Are these Human beings been treated with dignity
and respect ?
It is our first suggestion to Walmart management.

Ethical relativism – Walmart should stop to play relativism. It is time to

stop to sell the image they are offering “something” to these people.

Organisational norms – our suggestion is to make it above the culture

and places. If in America they can not explore child labour they can not
do this in other countries

Group coments - Walmart is know for its super low prices and that's why keeps the salaries so low as well. So therefore
Walmart should first make their employees happy, increase the prices of goods in stores and with that money increase
salaries. Also by avoiding using cheap labour in Africa and using child labour they will avoid facing more criticism and
make a good look for the company as they make improvements Africa and Asia*
With good ethics by not using child labour and paying their employees more they would need to increase prices, which
they could potentially use as re-branding their company, having more quality goods
References
Matthews, C. (2014), Wal-Mart's woes just keep piling up, Fortune,
http://fortune.com/2014/06/01/walmart-labor-woes/
Dickinson, J. (2013), Walmart's War Against Unions -- and the U.S. Laws That
Make It Possible, HuffPost, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-b-
gutman/walmart-labor-laws_b_3390994.html
Boudway, I. (2012), Labor Disputes, the Walmart Way, Bloomberg,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-12-13/labor-disputes-the-
walmart-way
Law.cornell.edu. (n.d.), WAL-MART STORES, INC. v. DUKES,
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/10-277.ZS.html
Supreme Justia. (n.d.), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, et al., 564 U.S. 338
(2011), https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/564/338/