Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
The picture above really says it all. Walmart, our country’s largest retail operation is run by people who are so clueless that they’ve created a culture that doesn’t even understand the massive irony in running a Thanksgiving Food Pantry for its own employees. The photo comes from a Walmart in Canton, Ohio. The concept of food collections for the poor at retail establishments is widespread in America, even as many Americans deny that anyone in this country goes hungry. The irony of this food drive though is that it is asking Walmart employees, who are already low paid, to donate food to fellow employees who are even worse off than they are. It is also ironic that the food drive is for Thanksgiving Dinner, since almost all Walmart Stores have been open all day for Thanksgiving for many years, so one wonders what type of Thanksgiving Dinner Walmart associates will have at all? What is new this year is that “Black Friday” for Walmart customers will begin at 6:00pm on Thanksgiving Day and run through the night.
The average Walmart Associate makes $8.81 per hour which translates into a yearly income of $15,576 if the Associate works a full time schedule. Most Associates don’t work full time because working full time would entitle them to benefits that Walmart doesn’t want to pay. Interestingly, the current U.S. poverty level for a three person family in our country is $19,530. So we see that the rare Walmart full time employee, with two dependents, earns about $4,000 per year below the nation’s poverty level. Indeed, Walmart has made it a practice to inform its employees about benefits like Snap and Public Assistance. At the risk of being portrayed as a “bleeding heart” by some of our readers, let me state that I think this company is disgusting in its personnel policies and is an example of what is worst about our country. Let me explain further.Here is an insider’s view on the specific Walmart situation in Ohio, from an Ohio State Representative:
“A recent study concluded of all the companies in Ohio, Wal-Mart has the highest number of employees on public assistance. Of the 50,000 Wal-Mart employees and dependents, almost 13,000 are on food stamps, and 15,000 on Medicaid. What part of the American dream can the employees of this giant “welfare queen” expect? The Waltons, America’s wealthiest family, knows they are exploiting their workers, and all at the cost of American taxpayers. Wal-Mart wants its employees to take care of one another while everyone else foots the bill for health care, food and housing assistance.
Last year during the Thanksgiving season, Wal-Mart associates bravely spoke out and rallied on Black Friday to protest the company’s low wages and poor labor practices. And on cue, the retail giant’s management illegally harassed and even fired employees who participated in the protests. Thankfully, the National Labor Relations Boards found that Wal-Mart’s actions broke the law, but it is yet another example of the company’s ill treatment of their workers.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-hagan/walmart-ohio-food-drive_b_4321122.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business
From the Huffington Post article that supplied the picture and gave background to it.
“When their paychecks don’t cut it, many associates turn to public assistance to make up the difference. Walmart’s low wages and insufficient scheduling are behind the enormous costs to the taxpayer incurred by each store. One Walmart Supercenter costs taxpayers $900,000 in Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, and other forms of public assistance.” http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/18/1256468/-If-You-Aren-t-Sure-Walmart-Needs-to-Pay-Higher-Wages-This-Photo-Will-Erase-All-Doubt?detail=email
This is in essence the dirty little secret of Walmart. This company, whose ownership has been among the largest funders of those who would gut all federal regulation, makes a good deal of money from government “entitlements.” One could almost say that they are the real “welfare cheats”. This doesn’t account for all of the local governments who give tax breaks to Walmart for the honor of having a store located in the community, or that fact that in many of these small communities Walmart “buys off” local officials. Stories detailing this have become so common that there is a website devoted to watching the government subsidies being given to Walmart:
“A secret behind Wal-Mart’s rapid expansion in the United States has been its extensive use of public money. This includes more than $1.2 billion in tax breaks, free land, infrastructure assistance, low-cost financing and outright grants from state and local governments around the country. In addition, taxpayers indirectly subsidize the company by paying the healthcare costs of Wal-Mart employees who don’t receive coverage on the job and instead turn to public programs such as Medicaid. This website brings together available information on both kinds of subsidies involved in Wal-Mart’s “double-dipping.” In the future we will add data on other ways Wal-Mart relies on taxpayers to finance its growth.” http://www.walmartsubsidywatch.org/
This website is very helpful because it allows you to search its archives by putting in a location of your choice and supplying the information. At random I typed in Florida as the State and when given a menu of locales to choose from I chose Crescent City, a place I know nothing about. Here’s what I found:
“This distribution center project, announced in 2005, was approved by Putnam County over the objections of neighboring Volusia County, where there was concern over the traffic impact. In 2006 Wal-Mart warned a group of residents that their land would be seized through eminent domain if they did not sell to the company, which apologized after the story came out in the media. The state, through Enterprise Florida, has agreed to pay for infrastructure improvements in the area, including $2 million for upgrading roads and $675,000 for water and sewer plant upgrades. The project is also expected to be eligible for benefits under the enterprise zone and Qualified Target Industry programs, which could be worth thousands of dollars in tax credits for each worker hired.”
At the close of this guest blog I will supply links to much of the information I am synthesizing to write this piece. Everything that I am writing is backed up by copious evidence. I think that my contempt for this company is well-founded and well-grounded in facts. The case against Walmart is proven, but the problem of the Walmart syndrome is one that continues to plague this country. The object of any corporation should first be to make money. I believe that is a valid observation. Since I also believe that a mixed Capitalistic system can assure the most benefit, for the most people, I don’t object to people making money. However, where I draw the line is the difference between making money and using a corporation’s resource to exploit its own workers, as it continues to exploit the rest of us. This is the Walmart business model. From a management perspective I believe it is a horrible one, which may make money, but eventually damages not only the corporation itself, but the entire society in which it operates.
When Henry Ford began his company he purposely paid higher than the prevailing wage at the time. Ford explained that it was just good business since if his employees got higher pay they could afford to buy his cars, which they then did. We know that when working class and middle class people earn more, they spend more. Giving workers a good wage isn’t bad business, it is good business. Better paid workers are better workers and better workers make the company even higher profits. This isn’t rocket science after all. Even business-centric commentators believe this as was stated in this article from Fortune Magazine, which uses the ideas of conservative economists to make the case that Walmart can and should pay its workers more, without sacrificing either the bottom line or their stock prices.
There are a number of ways to answer the question of what Walmart should pay its employees. One possibility is this: The lowest wage that Walmart can get away with paying. That is probably the way many employers do it, but it’s far from the best economic answer. Better-paid employees are likely to work harder and stick around longer. If employees made more, they would have more to spend at Wal-Mart. http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/11/12/wal-mart-pay-raise/
I’m sure most readers will remember the former electronics giant Circuit City, which is now defunct. In 2007 this company made a fatal decision that hastened its downfall. The decision was premised on the same lines as those who use the Walmart theory of employment, which is that employees are merely easily disposable cogs in the corporate wheel and should be treated as such:
In 2007, the starting wage [at Circuit City] for new employees was dropped from $8.75 an hour down to $7.40 an hour ($6.55 being the federal minimum wage at the time). In a press release on March 28, 2007, Circuit City announced that in a “wage management” decision in order to cut costs, it had laid off approximately 3,400 better-paid associates and would re-staff the positions at the lower market-based salaries. Laid-off associates were provided severance and offered a chance to be re-hired after ten weeks at prevailing wages. The Washington Post reported interviews with management concerning the firings.[24]The Post later reported in May 2007 that the layoffs, and consequent loss of experienced sales staff, appeared to be “backfiring” and resulting in slower sales” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_City
Far too many insufferable young adults at the nation’s MBA factories have come away with degrees and with a feeling of superiority and contempt for the average worker. They see workers and treat workers as somehow a sub-human species to be used, abused and thrown out to the streets when they are no longer useful to the company. When I was a business major in Marketing and Management many years ago this was known as “Theory X”. Back in those early days of the 60’s “Theory X” was viewed as counterproductive and outdated. Somehow “Theory X” has reemerged to become the norm for worker treatment in America and perhaps our decline as an industrial nation has been spurred by it. I think when Ronald Reagan signaled corporations that it was okay for them to reopen their battle with Labor Unions via firing the striking air traffic controllers, “Theory X was resurrected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATCO_strike
Right now Walmart is suffering labor problems of its own as a Union is trying to organize its workers. The company has resisted any possibility of its workers organizing into a Union and has fought it in the courts and by firing and/or harassing those workers who are trying to organize.
“The wheels of the National Labor Relations Board grind slow and not especially fine, but they have ground to the point of authorizing complaints against Walmart for several alleged violations of workers’ rights, including threatening retaliation against workers for striking and actually carrying out such retaliation. According to the complaints, which will be brought before an administrative law judge if Walmart and the workers don’t reach a settlement:
- During two national television news broadcasts and in statements to employees at Walmart stores in California and Texas, Walmart unlawfully threatened employees with reprisal if they engaged in strikes and protests on November 22, 2012.
- Walmart stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington unlawfully threatened, disciplined, and/or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests.
- Walmart stores in California, Florida, Missouri and Texas unlawfully threatened, surveilled, disciplined, and/or terminated employees in anticipation of or in response to employees’ other protected concerted activities.”
The truth about Walmart is that they actually have a negative effect on our nation’s economy and the economy of other nations that they insinuate themselves into:
- Walmart store openings destroy almost three local jobs for every two they create by reducing retail employment by an average of 2.7 percent in every county they enter.
- Walmart cost America an estimated 196,000 jobs – mainly manufacturing jobs – between 2001 and 2006 as a result of the company’s imports from China.
http://walmart1percent.org/issues/top-reasons-the-walton-family-and-walmart-are-not-job-creators/
As shown above Walmart jobs are jobs that ensure, rather than rescue workers from poverty and also:
- “Walmart pays less than other retail firms. A 2005 study found that Walmart workers earn an estimated 12.4% less than retail workers as a whole and 14.5% less than workers in large retail in general. A 2007 study which compared Walmart to other general merchandising employers found a wage gap of 17.4%.
- Last year, Walmart slashed already meager health benefits again, dropping health insurance for new hires working less than 30 hours a week and leaving more workers uninsured.”
As mentioned above Walmart puts a tremendous burden on the taxpayers in this country and in doing so harms the tax base in the localities where they set up shop.
- “Taxpayers subsidize Walmart’s low wages and poor benefits. Just one Walmart store costs taxpayers an estimated $1 million in public assistance usage by employees, according to a new report from the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
- In many of the states across the country that release such information, Walmart is the employer with the largest number of employees and dependents using taxpayer-funded health insurance programs. A few examples:
- In Arizona, according to data released by the state in 2005, the company had more 2,700 employees on the state-funded plan.
- The company also topped the list in their home state of Arkansas, with nearly 4,000 employees forced onto the state’s plan according to data released by the state in 2005.
- In Massachusetts, in 2009, taxpayers paid $8.8 million for Walmart associates to use publicly subsidized healthcare services.
- Despite all the damage they have done to US workers and communities, a 2007 study found that, as of that date, Walmart had received more than $1.2 billion in tax breaks, free land, infrastructure assistance, low-cost financing and outright grants from state and local governments around the country. This number has surely increased as Walmart continues to receive additional subsidies.
- Meanwhile, the Waltons use special tax loopholes to avoid paying billions in taxes. According to a recent Bloomberg story, the Waltons are America’s biggest users of a particular type of charitable trust that actually allows the donor to pass money on to heirs after an extended period of time, without having to pay much-debated estate and inheritance taxes. According to Treasury Department estimates reported in Bloomberg, closing the two types of loopholes the Waltons appear to use would raise more than $20 billion over the next decade.” http://walmart1percent.org/issues/top-reasons-the-walton-family-and-walmart-are-not-job-creators/
This Thanksgiving Season Walmart has been running a syrupy TV commercial that shows veterans returning home from our wars overseas. It guarantees that it will hire any veteran with an honorable discharge. To me this is yet another bitter irony that this company seems oblivious to. Walmart is “showing its support for our troops” how? By offering them some of the lowest paying jobs in America. This honors our troops in what to me is a rather backhanded way. Our veterans deserve to be well-treated after their service in these awful wars. Far too many of them can’t find work when they leave the service, but is working at Walmart honoring them, or is it offering them another low paying career, albeit without the danger?
When all of the truth began to come out about Walmart’s treatment of its workers I stopped shopping there. The truth is I can afford not to shop at Walmart, even though I’m on a fixed income that leaves me hanging onto the middle-class. There were times, when my family was young, that our income kept our heads barely above water. Therefore I can understand what it is like to clip coupons and go to multiple stores looking for sales. So I won’t say that anyone who shops at Walmart is bad because I’m not in a position to judge an individual family’s financial needs. I would ask people though, to raise their voices about the way that Walmart treats people. My request is that we find ways to oppose the “Walmartization” of our country, because if we don’t we will soon become one of those “third world” nation’s that we used to talk about disparagingly. My view in this is neither a liberal, nor conservative view. It is a question of fairness and it is an ethical question of how a capitalist enterprise should treat its workers. One can be a conservative, in the true meaning of the word and still decry such backward employment policies. From the perspective of those who don the mantle of fiscal conservatives alone, a fair analysis is that this company is costing us all billion$.
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
http://www.ilsr.org/new-study-finds-walmarts-miserly-wages-cost-taxpayers/
http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf
http://jonathanturley.org/2009/01/03/wal-mart-declares-war-on-us-history/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/walmart-black-friday-death_n_4312210.html
I guess we could shut down WalMart and let its tens of thousands of employees go on the unemployment rolls instead of making their measly $15,000 a year. Then all of the less efficient businesses allegedly put out of business by WalMart could reopen and charge the public more for what they are now getting at WalMart. With the higher cost for food and clothing then paid more people could go on the welfare rolls. And the state and local governments would save the tax revenues being used to encourage WalMart to open low cost stores, which would be good because with less employment and more people on the welfare And unemployment rolls there would be less tax revenues to use for economic development, not to mention the property taxes and income taxes that would no longer be derived from WalMart’s operations.
Here is the dissenting judge’s (he argued for retrial) discussion of the missing scaring of the pavement on which Mrs. Jackson was traveling….
“Regardless, there were absolutely no marks attributable to the accident left upon the pavement in the westbound (north) lane of the highway, which was Linda Jackson’s proper lane of travel at the time she said the axle fractured. How could this be possible if the axle broke in the westbound (north) lane? All marks associated with the accident were located in the eastbound (south) lane, which was Jackson’s improper lane of travel. (See App., Ex. D-28-5).”
I’m damn sure I would have caved and found for the Jacksons had I been on that jury. Somebody needed to care for that broken family and GM could afford it. And it sure is a humiliating experience to find myself in agreement with Atilla the Hun. But jeez….this sure doesn’t smell right. (Although another curious thing is that GM didn’t present any evidence regarding the “non scarring” to Linda’s lane.)
pdm,
Been busy. Believe it or not, I actually have a life away from the electrical computing machine.
I don’t really know what the reasoning was regarding the witness. Often those decisions are made in chambers, where the judge will make a ruling after listening to the arguments of the lawyers. And as I said, I wasn’t there for that part of the trial. Since plaintiff’s injuries were no longer an issue when Swan Yerger got up and in his opening remarks agreed completely they were horribly injured, it became a battle of engineers. I don’t really know what transpired, since I never read the trial transcript. The long and the short of it is the jury found for the plaintiffs.
As for dates, I read the date wrong. I had multiple windows open and read the date on the wrong case. However, the final tab ran GM over ten million. I forgot the exact amount.
One other piece of fallout from that case. The trial judge lost the next election. He went back to the private practice of law, and asked me to help him on several cases. I had an opportunity to ask him why he thought he lost the election. He replied that he did not let the jury consider punitive damages. A lot of people in the community were angry with him because he did not let them consider punitive damages. The jury wanted to gig GM on punitive, but he said the reason he didn’t allow them to deliberate on punitive damages was that he figured that would get the case overturned by the state supreme court, and they would have it all to do over again.
The judge understood the state supreme court, ruling as he did despite the fact he knew it almost guaranteed he would lose the next election. I wish we had more elected officials who put doing the right thing ahead of their careers.
Ya, now WP is blocking even pieces that last post….
2nd attempt at repost:
2 of 3
**
…………..they use those govt’s/regs to exert monopoly control of most every sector of the economy to block all Micro biz from competing.
Even if some of us can comply with their regulatory capture we now find it counter productive to do so in this country.
They/Wallst/City of London/Dc wish to keep playing their scam fine, but we are going to throw up our own legal road blocks everywhere we can. Hitting them on their bottom lines.
One would think with about half of the people in the US able to work, 104 million, + or – a few, that biz colleges, their students, govts’ charities would be teaming up to organize those out of the work force people + resources into self sustaining biz models in which the out of the work force people & the local communities held ownership position in new micro businesses.
Part of the profits could be plowed back in to do more start ups later.
I’ve heard of a few such programs but not on the scale that is currently needed. **
repost: 1 of 2
Because most of govt’s, demo/repub have been reg. captured by/through outfits like Chamber Commerce, BBB, ALEX, Ford/Rockefeller/etc. Foundations, they use those govt’s/regs to exert monopoly control of most every sector of the economy to block all Micro biz from competing.
Even if some of us can comply with their regulatory capture we now find it counter productive to do so in this country.
They/Wallst/City of London/Dc wish to keep playing their scam fine, but we are going to throw up our own legal road blocks everywhere we can. Hitting them on their bottom lines.
One would think with about half of the people in the US able to work, 104 million, + or – a few, that biz colleges, their students, govts’ charities would be teaming up to organize those out of the work force people + resources into self sustaining biz models in which the out of the work force people & the local communities held ownership position in new micro businesses.
Part of the profits could be plowed back in to do more start ups later.
I’ve heard of a few such programs but not on the scale that is currently needed.
david,
how Walmart started out has no bearing on how they operate as a company now. They force and strong arm suppliers to give them exclusively lower prices so the small guys can’t compete. Daddy Walton also started out selling all or mostly American made goods, but they are not even close in that department any longer.
rafflaw wrote: “how Walmart started out has no bearing on how they operate as a company now.”
Of course it does. Po was arguing that their strategy from the beginning was to weed out small mom and pop stores. I might ask how he knows such a thing, but I am fairly certain it is speculation on his part. The truth is that Walmart started as a mom and pop store, and to this day is still a family business. The fact that they outcompete other stores is not evil. It is nature.
rafflaw wrote: “They force and strong arm suppliers to give them exclusively lower prices so the small guys can’t compete.”
I think force is the wrong word choice, but being big does have that advantage. There is nothing wrong with that. So the small guys can’t compete. They need to learn to do something else that they can compete at, or maybe go ask Walmart for a job as a manager.
rafflaw wrote: “Daddy Walton also started out selling all or mostly American made goods, but they are not even close in that department any longer.”
In part, thank the unions for that. I use to buy some American made stuff back in the 1970’s too, but these days I find American made stuff to be of low quality and too expensive. I went to Hong Kong and China recently and found all kinds of good stuff at very low prices. I order such things off of EBay all the time. It is amazing what can be purchased and shipped for less than what is produced and sold here. Walmart is smart to buy overseas.
It seems like all your objections deal with competition. That’s life. Get over it. When you lose one battle, pick yourself up and be smarter the next time. Don’t blame another company for being smart and successful.
America has been on a decline for awhile now. We need to pick up our game if we are going to compete with Japan and China.
Another thing is that we are in a post industrial age. There is nothing wrong with Americans getting out of manufacturing and excelling in another field like technology. If we can’t compete with China in manufacturing because we created a minimum wage, then let’s compete in a field where that doesn’t matter, like technology. We had better get after it though because countries like Russia are doing pretty good in that market.
WP lost post
Because most of govt’s, demo/repub have been reg. captured by/through outfits like Chamber Commerce, BBB, ALEX, Ford/Rockefeller/etc. Foundations, they use those govt’s/regs to exert monopoly control of most every sector of the economy to block all Micro biz from competing.
Even if some of us can comply with their regulatory capture we now find it counter productive to do so in this country.
They/Wallst/City of London/Dc wish to keep playing their scam fine, but we are going to throw up our own legal road blocks everywhere we can. Hitting them on their bottom lines.
One would think with about half of the people in the US able to work, 104 million, + or – a few, that biz colleges, their students, govts’ charities would be teaming up to organize those out of the work force people + resources into self sustaining biz models in which the out of the work force people & the local communities held ownership position in new micro businesses.
Part of the profits could be plowed back in to do more start ups later.
I’ve heard of a few such programs but not on the scale that is currently needed.
I may never get what I’m calling for, but I will keep pounding the table for:
1. Get Rid of the Federal Reserve System & bring back an independent, competing currency/currencies.
2. Get rid of the direct tax/income tax system. There are plenty other ways to collect revs to run the govts’.
3. Remove all withholdings from workers pay checks. Young families have to have funds to raise their kids today not later. There are other ways to raise funds for SSI, Medicaid, etc.. ie: mineral royalties, import tariffs, Airwaves, road use, financial transaction taxes, etc…
4. Remove Investment Banking from Commercial Banking.
Re-instate the ban on the illegal practice of selling fraudulent OTC Derivatives. It’s an unsustainable Ponzi Scam.
The current system Banking/Insurance drain needed resources from local communities & kill growth/sustainability.
At least huge parts of Banking/Insurance biz needs run as non- profits on/at the local level with state/fed oversight of regs/capital requirements only.
North Dakota has one type of a model that works.
5. Elimination/change back away from Federalized para-military policing, fire dept, schools, prisons, MIC, etc…
6. I don’t know there’s much more, but for now, Free Beer & Cannibals.
That’ll at least get most everyone chilled the Phk out. lol 🙂
The point is, we might as well argue for free beer, that under today’s condition most likely not a single corrective/positive action will be take because Wallst/City of London have the demo/repub party leaders working their divide & conquer strategy against us all.
And many can not even allow themselves to consider the fact that this system is dying fast & people need to began immediately to withdraw all support & move their savings, pensions, investments out from under the control of all Wallst type outfits & into secure areas, inside/outside this country.
OS, I’ve just taken a look at the Cornell link. I had delayed looking at it ’til now thinking it dealt with seatbelts. It seems to be talking about “reliability” of expert testimony and to your point. But Smith/Hawkins was talking about a witness hired by the plaintiff and then switching sides to go over to the defendants. Different issue, no?
OS, I am really disappointed that you have not discussed my questions.
I do not doubt Smith was akin to Atilla the Hun. My guess is that all five judges were ultra conservative. That does not answer my question about the missing highway scars.
You say it took 17 years and then state the accident was in 1984 and the final verdict was 1992. Huh? Your link on Smith/Hawkins decision shows 1994. I still can’t get to 17 years.
Please read part VI on the Smith/Hawkins decision. It goes into great detail regarding inadmissability of the Marcosky testimony. (The Jacksons wouldn’t have wanted his testimony anyway. He agreed with GM.) My question is why, having been hired by the Jacksons, he then agrees with GM. Integrity? A pay-off? It just seems really odd. How often will a plaintiffs expert witness switch sides? Smith cites M.R.C.P. 26(b) (4) (B) and MRE 403 as the rules. To me, that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with a lack of scientific basis.
You asked that we read your link. I did and was intrigued. I’ve asked some questions. I’m not being argumentative (although that should be permissabile in this forum) but even Nick won’t respond! (A noteworthy lesson for us all.)
What’s up with that?
Mike,
My mind keeps going back to how at the end of WWII, Japan, Germany, Britian, France, all these countries were destroyed which left only the U.S. as an economic powerhouse. Fast forward 60 years or so and the tremendous lead that the U.S. had has all been squandered.
Between wars and Wall Street, prosperity for the common man just disappeared. What gets me is how the American people haven’t learned a damn thing. Wars and Wall Street, they still reign unmolested.
I’m happy for the other countries that have done well for themselves and brought themselves to a better place; China (in some ways), Brazil, etc, but I just can’t get over how the U.S. has squandered itself without learning anything.
“Hollowed out” is a good way of putting it. “Stupid” works too.
It seems to me that Walmart is just one example of the modern era distinguished by a marked reduction in the ability of workers to negotiate the terms of their employment.
Advice like ‘go get an education’, which has some truth, still rings hollow because of what some call the ‘hollowing out’ of the US labor market where there are jobs at the bottom and at the top but far fewer jobs in the middle.
The loss of good paying jobs for the middle class represents a serious problem for the economy and some would claim for democracy itself.
I’ve heard people say Obama taught Constitutional Law.
Does anyone know what Constitution he was teaching? North Korea it appears.
It damn sure isn’t the USA’s!
http://www.prisonplanet.com/since-when-are-your-phone-calls-private-goverment-lawyer-asks.html
How can people defend this below? That is not a business model, it’s a piece of a modern day mafia operation & it’s overseers running Slaves!
https://www.google.com/search?q=foxxcon+workers+locked+inside+%26+suicide+nets+placed+around+the+building
Bron,
Paul C Roberts was a key player in Reagan’s “Trickle Down Economics”, ie: pissing down my back & telling me it was raining.
I used to hate his guts for it, but he seems to have repented to a position I can support. ie: Some govt regs are needed, just like say a stop sign on the road.
I can’t force you/others to watch the video I posted above, but it is a key piece of the large positions I will be defending.
** Oky1 1, November 24, 2013 at 4:01 am **
Also,
If I should be injured in the course of my activities of course you’ll be expected to honor the compensation claims. lol
**
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press
(AP:CANBERRA, Australia) Australia’s highest court on Wednesday denied workers’ compensation to a bureaucrat who was injured while having sex in a motel room during a business trip.
The judgment is a final decision, reversing lower court rulings, and could have ramifications for other federal employees who claim compensation for unconventional work-related mishaps.
The 4-1 decision from the High Court said the woman’s employer did not induce or encourage her to participate in the sex, so the federal government insurer, Comcare, was not liable to compensate her. The lower court said the woman was injured in the course of her employment and should be compensated.
The woman cannot be identified for legal reasons. She was a federal civil servant in her 30s when she was hospitalized for the injury in 2007. She and a man were having sex in her motel room when a glass light fitting above the bed fell onto her face, injuring her nose and mouth. She later suffered depression and was unable to continue working for the government.
Comcare initially approved her claim for workers’ compensation but rejected it after further investigation. An administrative tribunal agreed that her injuries were not suffered in the course of her employment, saying the government had not induced or encouraged the woman’s sexual conduct. The tribunal also found the sex was “not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay” such as showering, sleeping and eating.
Federal Court Judge John Nicholas overturned that last year, rejecting the tribunal’s findings that the sex had to be condoned by the government if she were to qualify for compensation.
“If the applicant had been injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room, she would be entitled to compensation even though it could not be said that her employer induced her to engage in such activity,” Nicholas wrote then.
Comcare lost its appeal to the Full Bench last December, with the three judges finding that the government’s views on the woman having sex were irrelevant.
But the High Court ruled that Comcare was not liable to pay compensation. The judges did not say how much compensation had already been paid. Comcare declined to comment on the amount, but said it was considering recovering it.
“The relevant question is: Did the employer induce or encourage the employee to engage in that activity?” a summary of the court ruling said. A majority of judges _ Justices Kenneth Hayne, Susan Crennan, Susan Kiefel and Virginia Bell _ answered: “No.”
Justice Stephen Gageler dissented.
The crucial facts were that the overnight stay was within the two-day period of the work trip and her employer had encouraged the woman to stay in the motel in Nowra, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of her hometown of Sydney.
“In the absence of any suggestion that she was engaged at the time of injury in misconduct, those facts were sufficient to conclude that the injury the respondent sustained during that interval, and when at that place, was sustained in the course of her employment,” Gageler said.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz hailed the ruling as a victory for common sense.
“Instances such as this where an employee seeks to stretch the boundaries of entitlements are of great concern and the High Court’s intervention is welcome,” Abetz said.
Comcare declined to say what effect the ruling would have on other compensation claims. The government insurer also declined to say whether other claims in comparable circumstances were pending.
Australian National University law professor Peter Cane said that while he had not yet read the High Court’s reasons, there is always “wriggle room” in any test of whether an accident happened in the course of employment.
oky-1:
that is what you get when government is involved in the economy.
let the companies fail or suceed without any intervention by government.
Bruce,
You’re in denial!
Wally World is another deadbeat globalist corporation that uses trickery/fraud to avoid paying the rent they owe.
They use our roads, bridges, infrastructure, other govt services & our citizens & then the skip out on paying our nation back the rent that’s due.
That in turn leaves the govt putting Wally Worlds bill on our govt’s credit card.
I haven’t kept up on the numbers on this case but last I seen I’ve had many others join my boycott against Wally World & it’s showing up in the US quarterly numbers.
When the “Move Your Money” campaign against “Too Big to Succeed” Banks/Insur/Dirt Bag Corporations there was about 6-7 billion moved out of those big banks.
Earlier this year that number was reported at about 70 billion had been moved out.
If you wish to support Welfare Queens like Wally World fine, I just want you to be fair about.
Let me know your address & I send you my bills for heat, food, maintenance, etc., & your can pay it for just like you’re doing for Wally World/Wallst now.
And I send you back a 🙂 every month.
Mike you can say what you want. You know the old saying “open mouth and insert foot” someone should tell Pelosi and Maxine Waters that